Jurys still out

Whether Greece PM George Papandreou is a bungling politician or shrewd statesman is a judgment best put on hold for a while yet. For now,by surviving last weekends confidence vote,he has given the debt agreement reached in Brussels a real chance of passing Greeces parliament. Without it,and another instalment next month,Greece will run out of money. The collapse of Papandreous government might have killed the rescue package and led to a Greek default,which in turn could trigger a domino effect in several vulnerable eurozone economies Portugal,Ireland,Spain and Italy and a full-blown banking crisis.

The eurozones looming danger was compounded last week by Papandreous sudden,and surprise,declaration of a national plebiscite to determine the fate of the debt deal,sending markets across the globe into a tumble and panicking European Union leaders. He then called off the populist referendum. His survival of the confidence vote happened despite this ongoing drama,and because deserters from his Pasok socialist party came back to vote for him. The next act in this Greek tragicomedy is how the parliament responds to his calls for a national unity government to steer Greece through the crisis till fresh elections.

That leaves bare the nasty truth that Greeces political crisis is far from over. In fact,the main opposition New Democracy party has called for dangerous Papandreou to step down and hold elections right now. Greece,of course,cannot afford the expenses of an election now. What the eurozone and Greeces creditors would perhaps like to see is an outcome like Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos,earlier kept in the dark about the referendum,leading the interim administration. In any case,whoever leads Greece will have to get the debt deal approved and implement the radical and painful structural reforms entailed.