Many people in EU think about the situation as "give Greeks more money" vs "give Greeks 0 money", whereas in reality the situation is "get some Greek debt repaid" vs "get 0 Greek debt repaid". Obviously, in the first case, the latter is the better option, while in the second case, the former is. It's mainly the politicians' fault of presenting the issue in terms of the first two options to their people.

Sure, they are maybe implementing the wishes of the people ... or shaping public opinion. I bet that framing this crisis as a humanitarian issue and a people vs banks issue, instead of as a lazy greek vs industrious germans, would have fostered solidarity between european nations instead of increasing nationalistic tensions.

We are far away from the climate pre WWI/WWII, but that is the direction we have chosen. Let's hope the next round of politicians are able to take a broader view, and that the current situation is reversible.

Nope, they play on them and manipulate them to save German banks.

It's the "too big too fail" scenario, this time with the Eurozone playing the part of the federal government. Greece plays the role of the people getting mortgages that couldn't afford to repay post bubble.

The punishment of Greece (and other countries in turn, including France) will be used to clamp down on the German population in the end and keep them accepting of austerity and neo-liberal measures of their own.