That he's afraid is clear from the claim that he said he didn't want to be seen as demagogical.

But there's another "explanation" that better fits the facts: Zapatero is clueless.

So it becomes a question of where does Zapatero think he is going to be able to draw the line.  If this is it, and there is no further retrenchment/bail-out, then Spain could be getting off very lightly indeed.  If the Eurozone as a whole can reverse this momentum through some variant of the Merkel Market Mayhem Mitigation Measures we could even see the EU leading the process of Global financial reform, although I don't see how this can be done without a Tobin Tax, and that isn't even included in Obama's signature Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009

Germany has the upper hand now and they are strengthening the Growth and Stability (Suicide) Pact mechanisms to enforce fiscal austerity at the wrong time (the economy is not out of recession yet!). I don't care about Merkel's PR (naked short bans, schmans) while they continue to espouse faulty macroeconomic and monetary policy.

By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan