We've now reached a phase in the euro crisis when everyone is trying to feather their own nest at someone else's expense.

Hollande is campaigning to have the European Union help the Spanish rehabilitate their banks without involving itself in their business dealings. But, in doing so, he's much less focused on Spain's well-being than on France's. Once the principle stating that countries can only receive financial assistance in return for allowing external oversight has been contravened, one is left with nothing more than a pretty piece of paper to insure against the vicissitudes of economic life. And, of course, the next banks that will then be able to (and presumably also will) get a fresh injection of cash straight from Brussels are the ones in Paris.

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The next stage in the crisis will be blatant blackmail. With their refusal to accept money from the bailout fund to recapitalize their banks, the Spanish are not far from causing the entire system to explode. They clearly figure that the Germans will lose their nerve and agree to rehabilitate their banks for them without demanding any guarantee in return that things will take a lasting turn for the better.

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Germans have always expected that being part of a united Europe meant that national interests would recede into the background until they eventually lost all significance. One recognizes in this hope the legacy of political romanticism. Indeed, only political simpletons assume that when people in Madrid, Rome or Paris talk about Europe, they really mean the European Union.

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Jan Fleischhauer is the author of "Der Schwarze Kanal," or "The Black Channel," SPIEGEL ONLINE's weekly conservative political column. Black is a reference to the political color of Chancellor Angela Merkel's political party, the center-right Christian Democratic Union.