Alexis Tsipras's tears | Meeting Merkel | When debt doctors disagree | Jeroen Dijsselbloem's mucky shoes | Thomas Weiser's neat ironing | Poul Thomsen and failed states | A top secret Plan B | Yanis Varoufakis has a plan too | When the banks shut | Hiding whiskey from Hollande
23 September 2021
During the first few months of 2015 the world watched in awe — and often admiration — as a scrappy government in Athens tried to stare down Europe's financial and political establishment. The standoff failed spectacularly. Greece ended up with more loans on even tougher terms. In their bestselling book The Last Bluff, co-authors Viktoria Dendrinou and Eleni Varvitsioti judge the Greek government's strategy as doomed from the outset. But they also spotlight conflicts among Greece's creditors that inflicted undue suffering on ordinary citizens. In this first EU Scream Book Club, Eleni describes some of the characters her book brings to life, and its most memorable scenes, including the tragicomic denouement featuring François Hollande.