This weekend Greece shall be voting again with the hope of electing a government that would find it possible to govern.

Last month’s elections produced an impasse and, in effect, there was no alternative to calling fresh elections.

The choice that Greece will have to make is whether to elect a government that would keep it within the eurozone, with all the obligations that this entails, or a government that will seek to disengage it from the single currency, with all the attendant risks.

But Greece is not the only country in turmoil.

Last weekend the finance ministers of the eurozone voted to provide bailout funds to Spain to help it save its banks.

The total sum allocated was €100 billion. The Spanish bailout followed that of Greece itself, Ireland and Portugal in the last months.

After a timid recovery on Monday morning, the financial markets seemed to be unconvinced that the euro troubles are over.

The speculators are back with a vengeance, putting Italian and French sovereign bonds under pressure. Cyprus is also getting to the point where a bailout will become necessary.

However, Cyprus seems to want to adopt an alternative route to seeking EU funds.

Last year it borrowed €2 billion from Russia and seems to be close to concluding another loan of this entity with another country, probably China.

It may not be such a surprise that Cyprus has chosen this route, given that it has a communist President (the only such President in the European Union), who is renowned in his country for not wanting to take any decisions that could reduce the role of the state in the economy and for shying away from much-needed reforms.

Thus, whereas some weeks ago Greece seemed to be the only candidate for a possible exit from the eurozone, it is now becoming more plausible to think that other countries may choose the exit route themselves, even though they all claim that there is no alternative to staying in.

In the meantime Germany continues playing a very hard game, as it believes that its taxpayers should not be paying for the wastefulness of other countries.

Germany’s argument is flawed in that a break-up of the eurozone would hurt it severely because its economic growth is mainly due to its exports to the other countries that have adopted the euro.

There are many who are now afraid that Germany may cause the third catastrophe in Europe in a hundred years.

Malta is watching these developments with some trepidation.

We have had the second quarter in succession of negative growth, even though it can be explained that this was more due to individual circumstances than to a structural weakening of the economy.

I do not believe that an increase in the losses of Enemalta Corporation should be interpreted as a structural economic weakness.

We have benefited greatly from membership of both the European Union and the eurozone.

We need the euro to survive and thrive – a return to the Malta lira would wreck the economy.

This is why what happens in Greece this weekend and in other countries in the coming days and weeks is of crucial importance to us.

An exit from the euro by any country will not make the currency stronger, even if that country has a weak economy.

I believe that an exit is likely to kill confidence in the cur-rency and will open it up to further and more savage attacks from speculators.

The eurozone has been successful in the past because it was considered to be an irrevocable currency union.

The euro is in a crisis and is losing value not because of the fiscal deficits of Greece and other countries, but because there is uncertainty as to whether the eurozone will survive or not in its present form.

A Greek exit could trigger a series of exits.

Whoever remains will then have to make the choice between having a stronger union (that is, a political, fiscal and monetary union) or total disintegration.

A disintegration of the eurozone could trigger a permanent weakening of the European Union.

This is why a Greek exit from the eurozone is not a viable option for anyone, including Germany.