The economic crisis in Cyprus erupted during the second cycle of the European recession of 2011 as a result of harsh austerity policies imposed since 2010 in Europe. It is a new crisis born out of a failed response to the original European crisis. These policies were (and still are) a basis for the divergence between Europe’s centre and periphery, meaning the countries of the core of the eurozone, with Germany being the dominant economy, and those of the southern Mediterranean.

