Today could be, under conditions, a historic turning point for Greece. The country is entering a three year period, at least, of international economic control, which if implemented properly could put the place right again after a whole generation of criminal folly by the political parties (including the hegemonic left) and the trade union bosses here.

But the project, which was courageously triggered by the prime minister today, is unfortunately between the hammer and the anvil.

The hammer is external, and it has to do with the continuing narrow-mindedness of the Germans. Just a few minutes after her telephone discussion with Papandreou following the latter's announcement that he was activating the European rescue mechanism she was once again pouring cold water on expectations that the aid was going to be expedited swiftly. This has been her usual behavior ever since the Greek crisis burst the banks of a petty squabble among local politicians eager to go on exploiting the EU and their own people for private gain. She has been dragged kicking and screaming to vaguely worded agreements in international forums, only to begin a spoiling action (basically taking back what she had signed on to) the moment she arrived back home. In all this she sometimes seemed more sensitive to the screaming headlines of the tabloids rather than the state of health of the European project, and hence to the best interest of Germany herself. This has been repeatedly pointed out in thoughtful commentaries in the serious German press -including one yesterday in the flagship of economic conservatism, namely Financial Times Deutschland. And even today she is still giving the impression that what is uppermost in her mind is the May 9th local election and the rantings of her disappointing coalition partner, Mr. Westerwelle. Her finance minister himself has been trying to change course in the past few days as Greece was being pushed over the cliff by what, yesterday in particular, was clearly brutal speculator assault. But he too was sidelined by the obstinate hardliners in his own government. Let us hope that these are the last spasms of a protracted campaign of prevarication and double-speak which has exacerbated the Greek crisis to an extent that could have been prevented.

As for the anvil referred to above, this is the reaction of Greek public opinion inflamed by the civil service unions in particular in an orchestrated campaign of ideological mendacity led by the abominable electronic media. These are the prime beneficiaries of the rotten regime of the past thirty years, and they are still tireless in their lethal work of undermining any effort to impose basic decency and justice to the anomic jumble of filthy private interest at the expense of the common good which they unleashed under the name of "socialism". As bankruptcy was looming they were doing their best to actually bring it about, by targeting the only agents which under the circumstances could be relied on to help us avoid it, namely the IMF-EU team. In this they were abetted by the miserable nullities making up the main opposition party. Their hysterical screams pierced the common people's minds furthering a panic which, yesterday, threatened to turn into a run on the banks. (We barely slept last night). To cater to their warped ideological agendas they were eager to see the little people bite the dust all the while claiming that were defending them. Such is the viciousness of opinion makers here. But here are signs that they no longer exercise the absolute clout that they once did. Their beastly yelling actually forced the prime minister's hand, who might have been disposed (wrongly) to wait until early May, partly to accommodate Merkel it seems, for the declaration that he made this morning against the beautiful backdrop of Kastellorizo (Castelrosso) in the Aegean.

Today we are in a different world -or so it is to be hoped. Relief was palpable, but there are many hurdles on the way. The measures that have been passed in Parliament would have been unthinkable only a few months ago, and the people seem to understand the necessity for them -even additional ones. The IMF-EU overlordship must make sure that they are carried out against the all-too-real opposition of entrenched interests in the state apparatus and the political establishment, first and foremost in the prime minister's own party. But he has staked his very political existence on bringing about this reform, so he cannot turn back. It will hurt terribly, and especially people who are not totally to blame for the catastrophe. But this is the only chance for the country. And if he leads the reformist effort boldly his many prevarications and outright silly mistakes of the past few months will be forgotten.