Greece is rapidly regretting that it welcomed Syriza with open arms

Syriza wants to break the rules of a political association that it cannot afford to leave, writes Gerard Howlin

WHAT happened in Greece can happen elsewhere — that was the promise of Syriza, to Sinn Féin, at a meeting in the House of Commons in February. It was a boast then. It’s a nightmare now. The unravelling of Syriza in Greece is a salutary lesson for those who advocate that we imitate them.

It is a salutary lesson on the limits of national sovereignty in the globalised economies and multinational political structures of the 21st century. In short, Syriza, this week, has been reduced to sequestering the funds of its own local authorities. Its rhetoric has become cant. Having promised what it could not deliver at home, it is virtually friendless abroad.