Gideon Rachman, Financial Times

The new leaders of Greece and Italy — respectively, Lucas Papademos and Mario Monti — face an uphill battle, least of which is their ‘unelected’ status. Both come to their new roles with extensive technical expertise, and are particularly well versed in the institutions of the Eurozone. (Papademos was a vice-president of the European Central Bank, while Monti was an EU Commissioner.) These strong economic credentials mightn’t be enough though to fix the mess both countries are in.

So, what happens if Papademos and Monti fail? Well, economic ruin for a start. But the domestic politics of their two countries may also become considerably more radicalised. As Gideon Rachman observes, populists are on the rise: in Greece, a third of the electorate seemingly supports either far-left or far-right parties; in Italy, the Northern League (which helped prop up the previous government led by Silvio Belusconi) may revert to its extremist past, pledging all-out campaigns against the EU and immigrants. And the risks aren’t concentrated to those two countries either. Nationalist sentiment is on the rise throughout much of Europe. Some have even drawn enough votes to be considered possible contenders to govern (at least in coalition). Should their clout continue to grow, they could push their countries to withdraw from the EU — and dump the Euro. This is more than a crisis of confidence. It represents a fundamental threat to European integration. And worst of all, given how bad the damage is already, there may be little that can be done to stop it.