Germany was the anchor, but in the most crucial negotiations, Finance Minister Schäuble barely needed to speak. The Dutchman Jeroen Dijsselbloem chaired the Eurogroup session, and the argument against Syriza would be carried by austerian stalwarts like Spain’s Luis de Guindos and Portugal’s Maria Luís Albuquerque. They knew that in stopping Syriza they were fighting for their own political lives and the project they had dedicated their countries to when they signed up to the austerity agenda in 2011.
