The Spanish reading public now has a very good grasp of the fundamental realities of EMU. This will have consequences. Spain is not on the fringes of the Balkans, terrified of being cast into Ottoman banishment. It is not a small country that can be pushed around for year after year.
How and when all this will end is anybody’s guess but I have suspected for a long time that Spain is the lynchpin of the system. The intellectual atmosphere has changed entirely. Politics must surely follow.
I have no real sympathy for Spain or any of the other southern European countries. They played the EU game, received their checks from continent-wide wealth redistribution with smiles while at the same time doing nothing about their population implosion. Now they want out. And while leaving the Euro may provide a brief respite, it still doesn’t solve their underlying demographic crisis.
I have no doubt that after some grumbling, the Germans will grit their teeth and fork over money for the tax Merkel is proposing to pay for their social nets. The Spanish will by the looks of that picture from the article choose something a bit more destructive as they side down into the abyss unless they start having babies.