If you believe the headlines, Greece will go back to being a “normal” country this summer. Its European bailout program will end, and it will once again be able to borrow money on the open market.

A closer look reveals a different picture. The European Union is laying plans to rule Greece for decades to come. Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis outlined the reality in an article for Project Syndicate yesterday:

Until 75 percent of Greece’s public debt is repaid—in 2060, at the earliest—the country, we are told, will be subject to “enhanced surveillance” (a term with unfortunate echoes of “enhanced interrogation”).

In practice, this means 42 years of quarterly reviews, during which the European Commission and the [European Central Bank] ecb “in collaboration with the [International Monetary Fund] imf” may impose new “measures” on Greece (such as austerity, fire sales of public property, and restrictions on organized labor). In short, the next two generations of Greeks will grow up with the troika and its “process” (perhaps under a different name) as a permanent fixture of life.

The details of this enhanced surveillance have yet to be ironed out. But the current bailout process gives Greece’s European overseers the ability to veto Greek laws. European bureaucrats will retain about as much control over Greece as the United States president has over the United States.

Even if Europe retains only a veto power over Greece’s spending until 2060, this is still a huge amount of power. Control of a nation’s finances is fundamental to its sovereignty. EU Observer called July 13, 2015—the date of the last major clash between Greece and Europe—“the day Greece lost its independence after 185 years of freedom, the day democracy died in the country that invented it.”

Varoufakis’s article is not the only reason why this is worth noting now.

Italy may be getting ready to follow Greece’s footsteps, challenging Europe over control of its own sovereignty.

By “Europe,” I mean Germany. The Germans pushed through the conditions imposed on Greece, largely because it is German taxpayer money that was used to rescue Greece’s economy. Italy’s election on March 4 could result in a European clash of the titans: Europe’s biggest debtor nation versus Europe’s largest economy.

Several leading Italian political parties say they will break the EU’s spending rules, daring Germany with a shrug and a Oh yeah? Why don’t you come over here and make me?

One of the main parties, Lega Nord, wants to introduce a new treasury note that can be used to pay government bills. The details get technical, but the party’s economics spokesman Claudio Borghi simplified it by saying, “If people say this looks very like a parallel currency, who am I to disagree?”

The Telegraph’s Ambrose Evans-Pritchard wrote, “Such a government would clearly be at daggers drawn with Brussels over everything from fiscal policy to the migrant crisis.”

This is very similar to what the Greeks tried—and they will continue to suffer the consequences until 2060.

But an Italy-Germany showdown would not simply be a repeat of what happened in Greece. Italy is a G-7 nation, it has far more power, and the sums of money involved are far greater.

Sometimes forecasting in international relations is like forecasting an earthquake. You can’t say when the disaster will strike, but you can point to areas that in all probability will experience one sometime. Except in international relations there are fault times as well as fault lines. Italy’s election and its aftermath could be seismic.

The Greek crisis doesn’t necessarily tell us how such an earthquake will occur. Germany currently lacks a government and no stable governing coalition is on the horizon. Italy could use this to its advantage. But what has happened—and is happening, and will continue to happen—to Greece shows what is at stake.

Varoufakis wrote in his book Adults in the Room: My Battle With Europe’s Deep Establishment that Greece’s prime minister feared Germany would instigate a coup against him if he refused to comply with its demands. If such a threat was made, it was certainly a desperate one.

One thing is sure: In the long run, Germany will continue to dominate Europe. Few things expose this better than Greece’s ongoing subjugation to the German-controlled European Union.

Herbert W. Armstrong forecast that Germany would dominate Europe through “a European union” all the way back on May 9, 1945. Since then a German-led Europe has gone from the seemingly preposterous to a statement of the obvious.

Yet it is still worth pointing out, if only to draw attention to the dramatic accuracy of Mr. Armstrong’s forecasting. He was right because he based his forecasts on Bible prophecy. You can read more about this in our free booklet He Was Right.

There are nuances in the Greek drama that I’ve skipped in this short piece. It’s easy to get angry on behalf of the Greeks, but at the same time, German taxpayers are getting a raw deal—forced to send money to another nation. For a fuller look at this subject, read the longer piece I wrote with Trumpet executive editor Stephen Flurry: “Look Who Rules Europe!”