Last year, Angela Merkel promised to show the markets who is boss. “There is a kind of battle over what power the financial markets have and how much room for policymaking the politicians have,” said the German chancellor. It was vital, she added, to assert the “primacy of politics”.

As the bond markets force Italian, Spanish and even French bonds into the danger zone, it is tempting to say that Ms Merkel and European politicians are losing their battle with the markets. But resorting to the imagery of warfare makes exactly the same dangerous mistake that the chancellor made – which is to see financial markets as a monster to be controlled.

The markets are not the enemy of European politicians. They are their friends. In fact, they are all that stands between political leaders and angry citizens. If the markets will not lend money to governments, politicians can only get it from one other place – the voters. As Europe is discovering, that means either higher taxes or cuts in public spending. Only the markets stand between the politicians and deep austerity.