Europeans are ready to open the door for an exit tomorrow

Our European partners appear to be ready to open Greece’s exit door from the euroif the polls do not produce a government which is firmly committed to the euro and the commitments of the country.

Things for the Europeans are clear: The Eurozone cannot wait for Greece or avoid making immediate decisions, since the debt crisis is already rampant and Spain and Italy are one step before collapse.

So when the result of the polls is seen, there will be a teleconference of the Eurogroup in order to make a first assessment of the effect and the Europeans will define their course accordingly. European leaders have already sent their messages. Greece will be faced with a clear dilemma: either it guarantees the European prospect, the euro and its commitments, possibly with a provision of an “incentive” from our partners to ensure the smooth continuation of the support program will prevail, or Greece will leave the Eurozone.

The exhortation of the Eurogroup president Jean-Claude Juncker is typical. In an interview with Austrian newspaper Kurier, he urges Greek voters “not to turn their backs on the euro”.

Specifically, Mr. Juncker argues that any eventual victory of the radical Left will have unforeseen consequences for the Eurozone.

The head of the Eurogroup also notes that a possible exit of Greece from the Eurozone will not only have economic and social consequences for the country itself, but will hurt the entire euro area, and stresses that “Greeks should understand this”.

In recent hours, and after the AFP revealed the possibility of a teleconference for Greece, the news was not officially confirmed.  But on Friday, a representative of the EC, Pia Arenkilde, declined to respond directly to what will happen the day after the Greek elections. She said: “The field belongs to Greek voters. There will be a reaction from the EC once we know the outcome of the elections”…

This was confirmed by Mr. Juncker, who said: “We as the Eurogroup should speak with any Greek government” and revealed that on the night of the elections he will be on an open teleconference call with the ECB president Mario Draghi and Commissioner Olli Rehn.

At the same time, the president of the Home Affairs Committee in the German lower house and a close associate of Chancellor Merkel, Wolfgang Boschbasch, estimated during an interview with “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” that if the radical left - as SYRIZA is considered to be - becomes the dominant party, the exit from the euro is only a matter of time.

It is obvious that Europeans perceive the Greek elections as “a referendum on the euro”, and as such will they judge it. Accordingly, German Chancellor Angela Merkel postponed her G20 trip to Mexico for 14 hours in order to await the Greek election result. Olli rehn decided to delay his trip to Los Campos Mexico and the G20 meeting for a few hours, with his representative stating to the German Financial Times that “it would not be an indication of responsibility if Mr. Rehn flew away from Europe with no one being able to communicate with him”. To communicate in order to determine their IMMEDIATE moves…

The same goes for French President Francois Hollande and Italian PM Mario Monti. Both expressed their determination that Greece should remain a member of the Euro, provided however that it honors its commitments and adheres to the Eurozone and its rules. And in order for us to have no doubts, we should remember that Mr. Hollande had characteristically urged Greeks “not to give anyone the reason to kick them out of the euro”!

In any case, it is obvious that all eyes of the international community are on our country. Indicative of the global interest in Greek elections is the fact that already there are over 200 delegates from foreign news networks in Athens.

“I think we should take things step by step”, mentioned Jerry Rice, the IMF rep, on Thursday.

And possibly the first step, according to the outcome, could be the last one…