Guardian
May 17, 2012
We'd really like you to stay, but sorry, you may have to leave. This is the message now being sent to Greece by Europe's key leaders in the space between the election earthquake of 6 May and the ballot rerun on 17 June.
For the first time in 30 months of crisis, Europe's leaders have been talking publicly of a country being forced to quit the euro. There is no doubt a "Grexit" will do immense damage to Greece and to Europe.
It's a question of scale – containment or contagion.
No one really knows whether a Greek departure will result in an exponentially bigger Spanish and Italian crisis that could kill the currency and perhaps mortally wound the EU, or whether the fallout will be restricted to Greek calamity and collateral damage to European banks that can be lived with.
The fact that leaders such as José Manuel Barroso, Olli Rehn, Angela Merkel, and Wolfgang Schäuble are publicly discussing the eventuality of a Greek exit suggests strongly they think the damage can be limited, that they've used the past two years to quarantine Greece.
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