Easy: there have been 17 other finance ministers who played along to his lie, without exception. If you read the German media, much of the German elite really believes that this was a defence of Europe. It is more the exception when a politician or pundit hints that the real targets of the Greece policy were France and Italy.

This is another reason why, for me, the simultaneous "No vote equals Euro exit" declarations was a defining moment: when Hollande and Renzi assist to the creation of as new weapon against them, they and their parties are truly beyond hope.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}