Five Days into 2015

As the notion of time seems to have lost its significance the amalgamated events of the days succeed each other at a shocking pace. The country's under heated political climate is making an effort to jump-start panic concepts and fear factors of the recent past in light of the upcoming parliamentary elections in less than three weeks time. And though the line between truth and fiction is getting slimmer and slimmer the doomsday scenaria are resurfacing via their endorsement by the monotonous rhetoric of the country's PM. In this context, Merkel's announcement of last night hit like a nuclear bomb- whether preemptively made or in full consciousness of its effects- matters very little at this stage. The underlying message is loud and clear - Greece should comply with its commitments. Whether the new Government will be a centre-left wing coalition or a centre-right wing coalition bears very little weight in this regard. As the "Spiegel" conveys, Merkel made a bold statement that the Eurozone is now protected even against the possibility of a Grexit, should the centre-left winged party of Mr. Tsipras win the forthcoming parliamentary elections and attempt to re-negotiate the Greek Deal with its European partners, and that there is very little fear that Greece's exit will sparkle a domino effect that could snowball into a major Eurozone crisis. The message to all is very loud and very clear, yet this statement was strong enough to shake the political ground in the entire Eurozone once more, as it seems that the European austerity policy of the last five years is now at the doorsteps of Italy and France, with Germany not too far behind already in sight. And while Germany is arguing that Ireland, Portugal and Spain did it -therefore so should Greece- the countries next on the list are not as easy to save due to the size of their respective economies, which is far greater than the 2% of Greece's economy in the Eurozone. Germany's carrot and stick policy towards Greece has gone to lengths that even dispute the budget surplus as being the result of creative accounting. Mario Draghi also made softer and vaguer comments over the weekend that everything will be done to save the Eurozone. The great thing about vague statements lies in their ability to acquire shape and form through subsequent statements and once more facts become known. Fact, however is, that political bluffing is often times fatal and backfires easily, especially if called by the people!