Spain's sovereign thunderclap and the end of Merkel's Europe

``Taking what he called a "sovereign decision", Rajoy simply announced that he intends to ignore the EU deficit target of 4.4pc of GDP for this year, setting his own target of 5.8pc instead (down from 8.5pc in 2011). In the twenty years or so that I have been following EU affairs closely, I cannot remember such a bold and open act of defiance by any state''