The Greeks haven’t exactly got negotiations off to a good start

Eurozone leaders are holding a summit later today to discuss the Greeks’ proposal for dealing with their debt that was to be put before the Eurogroup this afternoon. But that summit might be a tad short. The Greeks haven’t turned up with any new ideas. They have instead made an oral presentation, and may table a paper tomorrow.

If this is true, then it hardly gets the new negotiations off to a good start. It had looked yesterday as though Syriza was keen to give it another shot by removing Yanis Varoufakis as finance minister at the behest of the Eurogroup, but on his first full day in the job, Euclid Tsakalotos looked isolated.

The way Greece’s politicians appear to have handled today is hardly reassuring to those who fear that Grexit is very close indeed now: and even if Syriza wanted to at least give the impression that it was trying to avoid Grexit, it has failed to do that too. It’s