Europe this week seems to be finally waking up to the prospect that, despite the damage it would cause, Greece is more than willing to default on its €310 billion (Dh1.25 trillion) debt. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras made this very clear on Wednesday evening.

Europe is late in coming to this realisation, despite the writing having been there on the wall for months. Greece in January elected a far-left wing government and handed it a mandate to fight the austerity imposed on the country by the Troika (European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund). While Greece made overtures that suggested it was willing to compromise, it has done nothing to suggest that it was serious about fully repudiating the terms of its 2012 bailout. Some have argued that Tsipras has been acting in bad faith with its European creditors, planning all along to renege on its promised payments. If European ministers believe that, then they have been in denial about the facts.

Greece’s economy is in ruins — it has been reduced by 25 per cent. The government has been robbing the budgets of local schools and hospitals to scrape up the money it needs to clear off its debts. The average Greek believes there is nothing the Troika can do now to make life any worse. So why not default, especially if that means lifting those hated austerity measures?

There is certainly no incentive for Greece to accept Europe’s bitter pill. Even if they did accept the additional austerity measures required to unlock the €7.2 billion bailout, most of the money would only go right back into the ECB and IMF coffers, since Greece owes €7.3 billion between now and August.

In light of these facts, the Troika’s strategy looks entirely inappropriate. They offer no hope or solution to Greece, instead telling the country it must continue to suffer more than it already has and do so for the next four decades. Europe needs to swallow its pride. It needs to abandon the misconception of a “lazy Greek” and look at the numbers as they are. Otherwise, this default threatens to unravel the entire European economy. Greece should repay its debt, but it needs to be allowed to do so in a way that is not crippling.