As reported yesterday [8], Greece has stormed right back to the top of the crisis charts, not only due to the previously reported news that the IMF may be withholding further payments until Greece finally gets its house in order (three years later one can forget this will happen), but because as a result of the fallout surrounding the national broadcaster ERT, the coalition government is now in tatters. Moments ago any hopes that some political stability may be preserved were crushed following news that the Democratic Left official Vassilis Economou, who spoke libe on Greek Skai TV which is still in operation, said the party decided to withdraw its ministers from the coalition govt of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. And there goes the fake sense of calm that has permeated the south of Europe ever since last summer's nail-biting Greek elections, which concluded in the best possible way for Germany. This time around, however, the last thing Merkel needs two months ahead of her reelection is a resurgence in the peripheral crisis, timed perfectly to coincide with the end of the carry trade, which will mean only the ECB is left to pick up the pieces.
In the meantime, all the momentum monkeys that were busy buying up Greek bonds recently on idiotic hopes of par recovery by the broke country's debt instruments, are getting carted out.
[9]
Once the 2013 support of 50 cents is broken, watch out below as reality finally reasserts itself.
More from Reuters [10]:
The Democratic Left party may pull out of Greece's ruling coalition on Friday after talks to resume state television broadcasts collapsed, plunging the nation into fresh turmoil.
Lawmakers from the small leftist party, angered by the abrupt shutdown of broadcaster ERT last week, will meet at 0730 GMT to decide whether to continue backing Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, who warned he was ready to press ahead without them.
"I want us to continue together as we started but I will move on either way," Samaras said in a televised statement, promising to implement public sector reforms demanded by Greece's international lenders.
"Our aim is to conclude our effort to save the country, always with a four-year term in our sights. We hope for the Democratic Left's support."
Splits emerged early on Friday among the party's 14 lawmakers, with one deputy saying it should stay in government and another that it should quit.
Samaras's conservative New Democracy party and its Socialist PASOK ally jointly have 153 deputies, a majority of three in the country's 300-member parliament. That means they could manage without the Democratic Left, but a departure of the party would be a major blow.
Officials from all three parties ruled out snap elections, which would derail Greece's bailout program.
Time to unrule them out.