The last act of the classical Greek tragedy ends with two outcomes: disaster and catharsis. In the current Greek debt drama, however, there has been no catharsis. The purification has failed to materialise.

It would have meant that both sides had seen the error of their ways and come to their senses. Instead, the madness continues: Greece will take on €86bn of debt in addition to the existing €317bn (not including the emergency loans from the ECB). From Angela Merkel through François Hollande to Alexis Tsipras, all eurozone government leaders assert that Greece will emerge from over-indebtedness more quickly this way and will be economically healed in three years. Europe pretends that the bailout will help. And Greece acts as if everything is fine now.

The Brussels summit was not a disaster, though. Greece does not fall into chaos and the euro remains stable. Maybe Walter Benjamin, who once said: “The real disaster is if everything stays as it is,” was right. When it comes to classical drama, it seems we have not reached the final act after all. The fourth act, the “retardation”, continues. The action is slowing down, with suspensory moments: the troika returns to Athens and monitors the situation, while the Greek authorities delay and tinker about again. Until the action moves into a phase of extreme tension towards the finale. When will that be? Merkel hopes it will be after the next parliamentary elections.

The troika is not operating as a trustee, but representing highly selfish interests

For the Greeks, there is more at stake in this drama than there is for the Germans. The Germans will lose a lot of money at the most. The Greeks, however, have long since come under the tutelage of the donors. What Tsipras signed on Monday is the permanent abandonment of Greek sovereignty. Athens will be told what budget surplus it must achieve and what taxes it should raise. Fiscal sovereignty is broken. The constitution will be interfered with to impose pension cuts. The administration and judiciary must be rebuilt according to the standards of the northerners. It is not about a bailout loan, but it is avowedly about nation building, as if Greece were a failed state. Even the IMF has condemned the deal as unworkable and said the levels of debt are unsustainable.

Greek culture is being encroached upon in every way. The Sunday opening of shops is being enforced, whether the still strongly religious population likes it or not. Consumption is more important than orthodox religion – that is the credo of the north. In international law the internal affairs of a nation are largely taboo; in the euro protectorate there are no taboos.

Three minute update: Alexis Tsipras has been an abysmal failure - video Guardian

The punchline of this declaration of surrender is that it was signed by a radical leftist rebel, who stepped up with the aim of mobilising the whole of Europe against the German chancellor’s austerity diktats. With his provocations and a delaying tactic, with no independent political design visible behind it, Tsipras has failed drastically. He has given a whole leftist project a sour taste. Now Brussels can govern even more incisively and dictatorially. Tsipras will be handing Greek assets amounting to €50bn over to Brussels in a privatisation agency. Goldman Sachs and McKinsey are already looking forward to their consultancy fees.

Since the crisis began, the concept of the rescue parachute has covered up the fact that the troika is not operating as a trustee, but representing highly selfish interests. Former ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet, a Frenchman, together with the former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, also a Frenchman, insisted in 2009 that no haircut took place in order to get the French banks out of trouble. At that time, the Greek government debt ratio was still at 127% (now it is 184%, and through the bailout package, 225%). The time since then has been used to transform the debts of the French banks, and also those of the German banks and those of the Greek billionaires, into debts of the institutions, ie the taxpayer.

The public and private debt ratio in the eurozone is currently 462% of GDP. If the average inte rest rate increases by just one percentage point, this means that society must also lay out an additional 4.6% of GDP to service the debt. Such a high total indebtedness is a barrier to growth. Strong increases in interest rates would be accompanied by massive bankruptcies and economic turmoil. A reformed Europe would see that it is not possible to outgrow this record debt. Especially not with more debt, but only with a haircut. Yes, that would mainly affect the rich. But they have also benefited most from the policies of the last 20 years.

So what’s next in the Greco-European drama? The day will finally come when interest rates rise sharply again. Then we will be entering into the final act.