In Spain, for example, voters understood the implications of supporting the ruling Popular Party, making it one of the only southern states where the government had some kind of mandate to implement tough austerity. But the mutually reinforcing recession and debt crisis that Spain now faces have reinvigorated Catalonia’s long-standing secessionist movement; austerity has transformed a chronic, though manageable, problem into an acute existential question.
一些国家的选民最初支持紧缩，但没有人会再次授权紧缩。比如，在西班牙的地区选举中，选民清楚支持执政的民众党（Popular Party）意味着什么，这也使西班牙成为南欧唯一一个政府有能力实施严苛紧缩的国家。如今，西班牙面临的的衰退及其导致的债务危机之间的相互强化，这导致长期存在的加泰罗尼亚独立运动再度崛起；紧缩已经将慢性但可控的问题变成了尖锐的生存危机。