All of that is true. Nonetheless if the consensus is to burn down the house why bother complaining about somebody playing with fire?

I take the leaking as a sign of internal divisions more than anything else. It seems that Merkel managed to both rid herself of all possible rivals and demoralise her supporters. Some sniping is to be expected.

What I mean is that in that article, only the Reuters article reference seemed to be evidence of actual Spain-Germany conflict cited. The rest seems to be a general analysis of the financial situation, with particular focus on risks in Germany (also discussing the German state banks, without mentioning that the current stress tests won't cover those), and without conclusions drawn (maybe except for the end, see below). On the other hand, if this and other articles in El País shall be considered the reaction of the Spanish government/elite/powers that be and in that a mirror of FAZ, then OK the low-level conflict may continue. Still, this appears even below the level of regular sniping between Merkel and Sarkozy and connected press leaks/spin.

:: :: :: :: ::

As for the end of that article, in Google translate:

...And yet, once again, Germany will have the last word. Merkel gave her support "transparency" involving the testing, but also warned that "details" (which eventually will be released), "the finance ministers decided in Ecofin." In other words, it depends on what his minister Wolfgang Schauble decree on 13 July.

If I read this right, El País is insinuating that Merkel is foreshadowing that Schäuble will water down the transparency in a month. If that's the right reading, then I suspected a misinterpretation already from having read articles on the stress tests two days ago that criticised the EC for not fixing details, so I tried to track this down.

REGIERUNGonline - Pressekonferenz von Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel zur Sitzung des Europäischen Rats		GOVERNMENTonline - Press conference of Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel on the summit of the European Council
Frage: Frau Bundeskanzlerin, noch einmal zu den Stresstests: Können Sie uns sagen, wie groß der Kreis der Banken sein soll, die untersucht werden? Werden es mehr als die bisherigen sein? Sollen die Ergebnisse Bank für Bank veröffentlicht werden, wie das unter anderem Herr Barroso gefordert hat?		Question: Mrs. Federal Chancellor, again about the stress tests: could you tell us, how wide shall be the circle of banks that shall be tested? Will it be more than previously? Should the results be published individually for each bank, as demanded by Mr. Barroso among others?
BK'in Merkel: Es gab heute die Übereinstimmung zu größtmöglicher Transparenz. Ich glaube, die Details werden dann die Finanzminister festlegen. Es war uns allen jedenfalls klar, dass das im Sinne der gleichen Wettbewerbsverhältnisse und des gleichen Felds, in dem man spielt, sozusagen kompatibel und möglichst transparent sein sollte. Die Einzelheiten werden, wie gesagt, später durch die Finanzminister festgelegt.		Federal Chancellor Merkel: Today there was agreement about the greatest possible transparency. I believe the details will be fixed by the finance ministers [Ecofin]. At any rate, it was clear to all of us that, in the spirit of a level playing field for competition and the same field to play in, it should be, let's say compatible and as transparent as possible. The details will be, as I said, fixed later by the finance ministers ([Ecofin].

This is obviously an evasion of a question on specific details.

As for what Schäuble's ministry did on the stress test front after the EU summit: going beyond the "if you have nothing to hide..." argument (see this comment of mine), they look for ways to change German law that mandates the tested bank's approval for publication, and Schäuble gave an interview (to another business magazine, the interviewer of which is another automatically blaming Greeks and Spaniards for the situation) in which he insists that the risk of eventual bailouts in the wake of the publication is one to take, one for which the EU has funds ready, and claims that "we won't have to pay in the end"  [speak: any run on a bank would be stopped with temporary liquidity injections that are repaid after the bankruptcy is averted].

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