TIME is running out and the economic crisis that, for a few happy hours, seemed to have eased, remains hanging over the eurozone like the Sword of Damocles.

True to form, the initial relief that gave the markets a spike did not take long to evaporate and leave the lingering fear that the fundamental crisis which existed before the Greeks went to the polls on Sunday was still there in all its malign magnitude hours after the votes were cast.

The Greeks, suffering already from austerity fatigue after four years of recession, still face a future of more cutbacks and tax rises – 150,000 more public sector jobs to go, more cuts to the health service and a VAT rise of no less than 6%.

While the centre-right pro-bailout New Democracy got the most votes of any one party, most Greeks voted against the terms of the austerity package. Which does not bode well for the future. A third election later on in the year is not impossible.

The two parties looking to form a new coalition – New Democracy and the left-wing Pasok – are the very ones many Greeks accuse of running the corrupt system that brought the country to its knees in the first place.

As more cuts bite, the prospect of social unrest and instability will inevitably grow in what has become a deeply divided country. Syriza, the left-wing anti-austerity party, is likely to make political capital as whatever new coalition is formed struggles from day to day to keep the Greek economy afloat.

Last night, David Cameron was using apocalyptic language, suggesting that if the eurozone did not get its act together, and fast – sharing the debt burden, recapitalising banks, creating a high enough firewall, etc – then Europe could either see its break-up or "perpetual stagnation" from a crisis that "is never resolved".

New Democracy's Antonis Samaras is hoping to loosen the strings of austerity, at the very least buying Greece a couple more years to undertake the bailout programme. While Angela Merkel has been adamant that the bailout terms will not be changed, there are those in her government who have been making noises about allowing Athens "room to breathe".

In Brussels, there is talk of a 100-day plan involving more privatisations, closing loss-making businesses and axing yet more public sector jobs; it has been estimated that, proportionately, Greece has four times more civil servants than Germany does. Yet what if 100 days is not enough?

After the G20 leaders leave the Pacific resort of Los Cabos, the EU leaders will look to their summit in Brussels next week when talk will be of greater fiscal union. But once again this will take time the eurozone may not have.

Ironically, as Mrs Merkel and her colleagues demand even more austerity from the hard-pressed Greeks, Mr Samaras and his countrymen might find a little relief in a far-off field.

This Friday, they will be able to don their blue-and-white facepaint and hope their football team gives the Germans a good seeing-to in the quarter-finals of Euro 2012. Then again, it could be another Greek tragedy in the making.