Checking, I find it was a reply to a question explicitly asking whether the EU is prepared for the case of emergency.

The finance ministry issued its own denial, which was more double-talk-ish: they denied that there is a crisis by saying that the rescue package criteria of insolvency and a danger to the stability of the Euro do not exist, Spain could sell on capital markets successfully, and Spain has its own national bank bailout fund as first line of defense; but that's no denial of the claim that Spain asked for help. Whatever is going on here the movers are highly irresponsible.

Is a country that would have government officials spread damaging rumours about a fellow Eurozone country "on condition of anonymity" the weekend before a major public debt issue fit to be a member of the Eurozone, especially when said country is the Eurozone's largest economy and its bonds are the benchmark for ther countries'?

Dumping Germany from the Eurozone might be a fitting punishment for the German government and banking sector (though a default would be a much better punishment), but that won't achieve anything for the rest. If the benchmark of German bonds is gone, interest rates would climb further; other Eurozone members weren't too high on solidarity either; and specifically Spain's indebtednesss to germany is rivalled by that to France.

At any rate, I will wait until there are explicit and public signs from the two governments before I believe that this ferocious "Spain-Germany Cold War" visioned in Anglo media is really on the horizon.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}