Now look at Greece. The chief executive of Piraeus Bank, the country’s largest lender, resigned on Friday after rumors circulated that the government, led by the leftist Syriza party, was putting pressure on him to quit via the head of the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund, the vehicle that receives bailout money and injects it into Greece’s banks. Piraeus’s shares fell 22 percent in two days.

When these rumors started circulating, Paulson & Co., a hedge fund that owns more than 9 percent of Piraeus, wrote to the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund to complain. It said it had invested in the bank in last month’s share issue on the understanding that Anthimos Thomopoulos, whom it rated as “highly capable,” would remain as chief executive.

John Paulson, the hedge fund’s founder and manager, argued that the stability fund would not have the authority to request the chief executive’s resignation and that, if it had delivered such a request on behalf of the government, it “would clearly have been in violation of the laws governing the HFSF and, in particular, safeguarding its independence from political interference.”

The stability fund put out a statement on Thursday denying that it had made any such request. Later that day, the Eurogroup — the group of eurozone finance ministers — made clear that it wanted Greece to depoliticize its banks and public administration. Despite this, Mr. Thomopoulos resigned the following day.

Given that the eurozone has lent Athens vast sums of money (some of it to recapitalize Piraeus Bank) and the European Central Bank is now Piraeus Bank’s supervisor, there is a need to get to the bottom of what happened.

There are also other worrying signs that the government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras may be flouting the rule of law. Last year, it fired the head of the supposedly independent tax authority. It also passed a law giving the government more control over television broadcasting.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who was elected leader of the opposition this month, said there had been an attempt “to control the justice system, to tamper with independent authorities, to stuff the state with friends and family, and to roll back reforms in education.”