The very life security of millions of citizens is at stake here. For some, it’s about holding on to modest affluence. For others, it’s about sheer survival, savings, political radicalization, extremism -- even life or death.
Germans have a tendency to play all this down – not surprising in a country that mostly feels that the crisis is an abstraction. In Spain, on the other hand, there can be no doubt as to why Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is fighting the crisis so defensively: overnight, Spain too has become a crisis state.
