Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande. The future of Greece, and by consequence that which Europe wants to become over the next 10 years, is all in their hands now. It's not in the hands of Alexis Tsipras, even though he emerges reinforced by the "No" vote cast by six out of every 10 Greeks. It's not in the hands of the German hawks and Eastern Europe, though they were circling above Syntagma Square immediately after the referendum. Nor is it in the hands of our Italian Premier Renzi, who during the night shared with news agencies a certain sense of irritation over the reemergence of the French-German axis. Only the Monday evening meal between Angela and Francois in Paris will delineate an approach that will then be discussed -- or better yet, "ratified" -- Tuesday afternoon during the Euro summit held with all the other countries in the Eurozone. Usually people say that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. And those two got going immediately, as soon as they understood that the Greek "Oxi" would win hands down in Athens. At six in the evening, when the first phone polls were released, all in favor of Tsipras, news agencies began reporting an emergency meeting underway between Merkel and Hollande, during which they would "evaluate the consequences of the Greek referendum." The meeting was designed to "highlight the willingness of Paris and Berlin to take a shared stance on this issue," underlined a statement released from the Palais de l'Élysée. And, not by chance, shortly thereafter the French President decided to hold his first phone call with the Greek Premier, fresh from his victory and popular legitimization. Just a few hours later, during the night, Angela and François called a Eurogroup meeting with all the other European countries, setting it for Tuesday afternoon, in other words for a time when everything will have already been decided along the French-German axis. Even the ECB, unless there is some sudden surprise, won't do anything -- save to put the whole situation on standby when called on Monday morning to confirm or refuse providing emergency funding for Greek banks -- while it waits for a political solution to the impasse Europe now finds itself in. According to news reported last night by Reuters, Mario Draghi intends to hold emergency funding for Greek banks at its current level. This means not giving in to the Greek requests to raise the level of funding, nor to the call from German hawks to cut back. Therefore, neither a lifeline nor an immediate Grexit. But most of all, it means that Greek institutions won't be able to open for business Monday, nor on Tuesday. Not until the Euro summit is held, or perhaps even later. If this news is confirmed, Draghi's move can be interpreted as a call for "political" responsibility in finding a solution to the Greek affair. Basically, the technocrats shouldn't be the ones to decree an exit or the continuing membership of a European member country. We need a decision from the people who have been democratically elected to make such choices. So it's Berlin and Paris. Once again so close and yet so far. Once again European history will move along the red line that unites these two national capitals. There's nothing to be done for those who, like our Italian Premier, believed as recently as five days ago to have established a special relationship with the Chancellor of Europe. This post originally appeared on HuffPost Italy and was translated into English. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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