Keeping the euro alive means death to democracy

Farewell then, George Papandreou (or Georgie Paps, as he's been nicknamed in Westminster).



The Greek leader has bowed to Brussels and made it clear he will step down to make way for an EU-approved coalition government. Though there is still some confusion in Athens about the shape of the new administration, which may persist for a time given the Greek tendency to leave everything to the last possible moment, we already know its likely leader. Loukas Papademos is a technocrat par excellence.



Crucially, as the former vice president of the European Central Bank, he comes with the Brussels seal of approval. A government led by him will drop silly talk of an EU referendum. And, EU leaders believe, he can also be trusted to push through a debt and austerity deal likely to mean a decade of misery for the Greek people, but keep the country inside the euro.

Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou has made it clear he intends to give up leadership of the failing EU country in favour of a coalition government that is EU approved

I hold no particular candle for Mr Papandreou. By all accounts he is a decent if ineffectual man who owes his place to his surname, being the scion of one of Greece's self-proclaimed political dynasties. But the manner of his departure should unsettle us all.



The democratically elected Greek leader has, in effect, been removed in a Brussels-led coup d'etat. Appalled at the prospect of the Greek people giving the wrong answer in the referendum he proposed, Germany and France first threatened Greece with ejection from the single currency, then enforced bankruptcy and finally expulsion from the EU itself for at least a decade.



The result is that country that gave us democracy is to be forced to change its leader and install an unelected coalition government that meets with the approval of the unelected Brussels machine.



Questions have been raised over Silvio Berlusconi's ability to sort out his country's basket case economy

Watch as the same process happens in Italy. Silvio Berlusconi may be a buffoon, but he is Italy's buffoon. Inexplicably, the country's people have been prepared to tolerate his sex and corruption scandals and keep him in power. That is their choice. But now he looks set to be brought down after receiving the black spot from Brussels.



The key moment - and what a moment it was! - came at a Brussels summit late last month, when Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy were asked if Berlusconi could be trusted to sort out his country's basket case economy.



The pair exchanged glances and then, to the astonishment of the assembled media, simply started laughing. From then on, Berlusconi's days were numbered. To keep the euro project on the rails, he will be forced out, perhaps as soon as this week. A Brussels-approved coalition administration, overseen by IMF and EU officials, will be put in place in Rome.



I won't shed any tears at Berlusconi's fall, and a full-scale meltdown in Italy's economy would of course have catastrophic effects for us in the UK.



But his departure, and that of Mr Papandreou, will raise profound questions about the future of sovereign nation states as the Eurozone converges to keep the single currency alive.



It's certainly not democracy as Solon, the Athenian poet and lawmaker credited with laying the foundations of modern, democratic society 2,600 years ago, would have recognised it.





Read James Chapman's Rightminds blog HERE