The EU feels spurned and is prepared to utilize its sanctioning power as a lack of diplomacy could allow a small problem to damage Spain's reputation across global markets.
History repeats. A new government in Spain starts its European debut like a bull in a china shop. José María Aznar blocked a summit in Berlin while until EU aid was nixed, and he earned steady scorn from his German counterpart Gerhard Schroeder. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero promised Angela Merkel that the Endesa battle would end well, and at the end he sent it to Italians from Enel while the German E.On had to settle for the leftovers.
Mariano Rajoy also enacted a scorched earth policy yesterday and created enemies across the EU.
Various sources from across the EU assured on Friday that many EU nations were shocked to realize that Rajoy announced in a press conference at the end of the European summit held last Thursday and Friday that the Spanish accounts would close 2012 with a national debt/GDP ratio of 5.8% instead of the 4.4% ratio that Zapatero's government had agreed to comply with in line with demands set for other countries in Europe. To make matters worse, the Prime Minister boasted that he had not discussed these figures with others because he wanted to make a sovereign decision.