Forget ISIS or the war zone in eastern Ukraine, most of Europe’s mass media led this week with coverage of the increasingly acrimonious talks between the leftist Greek government and its eurozone creditors.

Germany’s Die Zeit referred to a “Diplomatic catastrophe” , while La Repubblica led with “Eurogroup stop to Greece”. France’s Liberation was testy with Greek FinMin Yanis Varoufakis, charging that “Varoufakis is behaving with contempt towards his (Eurogroup) colleagues”.
Die Zeit’s online edition notes that “Greece has 48 hours to find a solution to the Greek debt issue.

Liberation, which also hammers the media-savvy Yanis, charged that the Greek FinMin appears contemptuous of all his Eurogroup colleagues, sans one: Wolfgang Schauble. This, according to the French daily, makes Athens’ task even more difficult at the European level.
The German magazine Focus, a sharp Greek critic at the beginning of the sovereign debt crisis, underlined: “for the star of the Greek economy, the Eurogroup has decided; Athens doesn’t agree and European officials give the Greek government an ultimatum until the end of the week.”

“Across the pond”, CNBC said Monday’s “shipwreck” at the Eurogroup “…raises concerns that Greece will be obliged to leave the euro.” The network also quotes an unnamed Greek banking executive, who charged that the Greek government’s stance “made markets and banks ill”.

In the “eternal city”, La Repubblica, usually associated with the center-left in Italy, expressed the view from the Greek side: “Athens: (Eurogroup) Demands were unacceptable and unreasonable”.

Le Figaro writes that “a dialogue of the deaf leads to collapse of talks”, while also referring to Varoufakis’ statement that “we don’t want Greece to become a debt colony”. Still in the “city of light”, Le Monde was equally acerbic, asking, “Whether this is a game of poker between cheats”, taken from a quip by the Greek FinMin, who said Athens has no “Plan B”.

SkyNews is in the minority of media outlets professing optimism, holding that “ the talks will continue in the coming days, and there is likely to be another Eurogroup meeting to confirm things as soon as something can be hatched behind the scenes.”

In a far more negative done, Germany’s dpa says “Greece closer to bankruptcy”, whereas Deutsche Welle goes as far as calling the globe-trotting Yanis “insolent”.