Why does Germany insist on a failed programme for Greece?

The elephant in the 20 February 2015 Eurogroup meeting room was Greece's 2010 failed structural readjustment programme, admonished by Yanis Varoufakis as 'fiscal waterboarding'. Why does Germany persist in defending it?

Separately, Kirsty Hughes in her paper (see related urls) argues that George Papandreou cancelling his referendum in 2011 was a capitulation. Tsipras and Varoufakis achieving new space and flexibility and four months in February 2015 to achieve a genuinely new approach was actually quite an achievement.

Separately, Pavlos Eleftheriadis in his paper (see related url) suggests that unless Syriza changes its rhetoric now and unless it explains the facts about the EU and the economy, it will be incapable of justifying any of these decisions to its voters several months down the line.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: Greece has sent reform plans, a 'valid starting point,' says EU source http://www.europeansources.info/record/greece-has-sent-reform-plans-a-valid-starting-point-says-eu-source/

ECFR: Commentary, 25.02.15: Note from Berlin: The Greek compromise http://www.ecfr.eu/article/commentary_note_from_berlin_the_greek_compromise_a_pyrrhic_victory_for_germ

openDemocracy: Can Europe Make It?, 26.02.15: Greece and the eurogroup: capitulation or breaching austerity's dam? (by Kirsty Hughes) https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/kirsty-hughes/greece-and-eurogroup-capitulation-or-breaching-austerity%27s-dam

openDemocracy: Can Europe Make It?, 26.02.15: Syriza's limited options (by Pavlos Eleftheriadis) https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/pavlos-eleftheriadis/syriza%27s-limited-options

ECFR: Commentary, 05.03.15: Note from Berlin: 'Over and over again' http://www.ecfr.eu/article/commentary_note_from_berlin_over_and_over_again311291

openDemocracy: Can Europe Make It?, 06.03.15: Economic egoism and liberal dogma https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/steffen-vogel/economic-egoism-and-liberal-dogma

---