Portside

What is at stake in Greece goes very far beyond merely financial questions. It goes beyond the question of the fate of a small and historically very badly governed country with weak institutions that has suffered abominably in the wake of the crisis over the last five years...It goes even beyond that very grave situation...It goes beyond that to the future of Europe and beyond that, to the meaning of the word democracy in our time.

The Greek election was a warning that, while wealth and political power may be related, they are not the same thing: Governments can be overturned. Europe needs answers. The Greek crisis is a crisis of the entire EU. To one extent or other, every country - even Germany, the EU's engine - is characterized by falling or anemic wage growth, increasing economic inequality, spreading deflation, and an overall decline in living standards.

In Germany heads fall - Lenin's head still needs to be kept buried, and Berlin's once-popular gay mayor bows out. Another head featured in the press belongs to a man who is certainly not gay nor a Lenin. Sadly, current references to Vladimir Putin, evoke all too sharply recollections of German language used against every Russian leader since the start of World War I a hundred years ago.

The leaders are currently working almost around the clock in their overriding hope for an agreement with Merkel (CDU) and the Bavarian Seehofer (CSU). For them a great deal is at stake. If a new “grand coalition” government is formed they will get fine cabinet posts, in Gabriel’s case the job of vice-chancellor next to Merkel. But if the attempt breaks down they might end up in the party dust bin.

Yes, Angela Merkel wins. Her 42 percent vote, impressive as it was with many parties contesting, left her with the biggest bloc of 311 seats in the 630-seat Bundestag, but five seats short of a needed majority. So instead of the previous more-or-less like-minded partner, further to the right on most issues, she must try to forge an alliance with her main election opponents, the Social Democrats.