EURO-RUSSIA (Dialogue):

In both Greece and Italy, the biggest threats to the European monetary union, technocrats rather than elected political leaders have been given the daunting task of salvaging the economies, a crucial step towards saving the euro.
Mario Monti, a former European Union commissioner, was appointed Italy's new Prime Minister
Two days earlier, in Greece, Lucas Papademos, a former senior official of the European Central Bank, took over as the head of a new coalition government
Both understand the language of the financial markets, to which they owe their appointments in the first place.
Less than two weeks after the change of guard in Greece and Italy, it is becoming clearer by the day that an administration led by technocrats by itself cannot go far in reforming the economy or, even more basically, in winning the confidence of the bond markets.
Without political constituencies of their own, the leaders may not to be able to muster support for reforms
It might well be that the task of saving the euro, which has become Europe's main goal, cannot be left exclusively to technocrats or politicians.