The coronavirus may finally break Italian resistance to EU fiscal union

Crisis could force Rome out of the euro, or more likely result in it agreeing terms for banking accord

At huge social, political and economic cost, the eurozone survived its first existential crisis. With a viral pandemic now sweeping Europe, can it survive a second? My answer may disappoint some Eurosceptic readers, but probably yes.

So much political capital has already been expended on European monetary union, and so much pain has been suffered trying to make it work, that even though it may not deserve to survive, policymakers cannot allow the latest seizure to succeed where the last one failed. They are too heavily vested in it to let go, so the euro is cursed to stagger on, whatever the coronavirus has to throw at it.