Greek crisis: Europe has nothing to fear from Syriza's belligerence

Alexis Tsipras thinks he holds another trump card: Europe's fear of a Greek default. But this is a delusion promoted by his finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis

The good news is that a Greek default, which has become more likely after prime minister Alexis Tsipras' provocative rejection of what he described as the "absurd" bailout offer by Greece's creditors, no longer poses a serious threat to the rest of Europe. The bad news is that Tsipras does not seem to understand this.

To judge by Tsipras's belligerence, he firmly believes that Europe needs Greece as desperately as Greece needs Europe. This is the true "absurdity" in the present negotiations, and Tsipras' misapprehension of his bargaining power now risks catastrophe for his country, humiliation for his Syriza party, or both.