It was this three-tiered structure of debt that drove the politics of the eurozone crisis from the French point of view: the small bankrupt sovereign debtors—Greece and Portugal—at the bottom; then the victims of the real estate boom with big liabilities from the banking crisis—Ireland and later Spain; and finally the really big public debtors, led by Italy. As far as Paris was concerned, the long-term sustainability of Greece’s debt was less important than holding this giant pyramid in place.
