Briefly united by Ukraine, Europe faces divisions on the home front

Pandemics resulting in lots of deaths are a Bad Thing. Russia invading Ukraine: also Bad. What about finance ministers running large budget deficits in a downturn to keep the economy humming along? Well, that depends on whom you ask. Therein lies a brewing problem for Europe. Dealing with covid-19 then Ukraine has bound the continent together. The economic fallout from both will revive old debates that tend to tear it apart.

Next month will mark a decade since Mario Draghi, then president of the European Central Bank (ecb), promised to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro. The effectiveness of the spell seems finally to be wearing off. The euro zone is not yet in crisis. But once again countries in the south—notably Italy, whose prime minister these days is one Mario Draghi—are having to offer jittery investors higher interest rates to fund their debts than Germany, the continent’s fiscal goody-two-shoes. Given that the emergence of “lo spread” in 2011 was a prelude to the carnage of the original euro crisis, its return is enough to set nerves jangling. Remember those all-night summits ten years ago, at which European leaders berated Greece and scrambled to save the single currency? Now imagine the same scenario with a diminished French president, surging inflation and war on the eu’s doorstep.