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Fra Guardian:

A panicky Spanish government issued dramatic messages of impending doom for the eurozone on Thursday as its borrowing costs reached unsustainable levels and foreign minister José Manuel García-Margallo claimed that the EU may need to act within hours.

"The future of the European Union will be played out in the next few days, perhaps in the coming hours," he said, according to Spanish press reports.

Dage, måske timer.

Redningspakken på 100 mia. euro til de spanske banker beroligede markederne i ca. 4½ time. Så varede fixet ikke længere, og nedturen begyndte. Det er nu kun ECB, der kan gøre noget, men der er ingen, der tager telefonen:

Bundesbank board member Andreas Dombret this week said the ECB won’t buy more government bonds to ease the market tensions while Swedish central bank governor Stefan Ingves today said it’s hard to see what else the ECB could do for Spanish lenders.

“We have done our part,” Dombret said in a June 11 interview in London. “Now it’s up to the political leaders to deliver on the fiscal and structural policy side.”

Merkel vil heller ikke gøre noget.

“Germany is strong, Germany is the economic engine and … the anchor of stability in Europe,” she said. Her country was “putting its strength and its power to use for the wellbeing of people, not just in Germany, but also to help European unity and the global economy. But Germany’s strength is not infinite.”

The key to an end to the crisis, she said, was not for Germany to guarantee the debts of its partners, but to agree on sweeping new rules of a political union in Europe to complete the process of monetary union.

En finansunion, hvor kommissionen skal styre de nationale budgetter (efter den tyske højrefløjs foretrukne politik), er ikke en løsning på Spaniens pengenød. Det er snarere et forslag, som det er meningen skal blive skudt ned, så man har en undskyldning for ikke at gøre mere.

Ud fra den spanske regerings bønfaldelser om hjælp og trusler om hvad der vil ske, hvis de ikke får den, mener jeg, at det ikke er tomme trusler. Spanien vil træde ud af euroen inden længe, hvis renten på spanske statsobligationer ikke kommer ned. Spanierne er i fuld gang med at trække pengene ud af deres banker.

Før havde vi år, måneder og uger. Nu har vi dage, måske timer. Men hvis euroen kun har en fremtid under en ødelæggende restriktiv budgettering, er det bedst den går i stykker.

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