With uncharacteristic speed and decisiveness, European leaders ditched their budgetary strictures to yield action. The pandemic was so alarming, its potential dangers at once enormous and incalculable, that it eclipsed the usual rancor that frequently divided the nations of Europe, supplying one fundamental objective: limiting the damage. The austerity-minded governments of Northern Europe for the moment had something greater to fear than public debt, so they assented to a suspension of the rules, permitting the worst-hit countries to borrow as needed. The European Union transcended its legacy
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