Whatever party wins today's election in Greece, the austerity and reform measures agreed with the EU last year as the price for €240bn in loans are already dead. Politicians and bankers in the rest of Europe have reacted with near hysteria to the swift rise and possible electoral success of the radical leftist party Syriza. They take at face value its pledge to tear up the austerity memorandum with the EU, so widely detested here, as soon as it takes office. They are not-so-quietly rooting for the conservative New Democracy and its previous coalition partner, Pasok, parties formally committed to austerity and to staying in Europe.
