There is only one question: are we together or not? This is how French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire expressed himself is pleading with other EU countries, most notably Germany, for solidarity amid a coronavirus pandemic.

For many in Southern Europe, solidarity means, above all, one thing: Coronabonds. France, Italy, Spain, and six other EU countries have stood behind the creation of a common Union financial instrument as the best possible response to the pandemic.

The arguments they put forward are both political and economic. Coronabonds are designed to prevent some of the hardest-hit countries, such as Italy and Spain, from sinking into new debt. They are also intended to show Europeans that “we are all in this together” – eliminating the early disaster situation in which China provided medical assistance to Italy while the EU stood with its arms crossed. Some Italian and Spanish politicians have warned that if the EU does not activate, their countries could lose confidence in the European project forever.

The pressure to demonstrate European solidarity and alleviate suffering is right. However, Coronabonds are the wrong decision. Instead of saving the EU, they can ultimately kill him.

Proponents of Coronabonds focus on the potentially damaging public opinion effect in southern Europe if northern Europeans do not react while the Italians and Spaniards experience tragedy. Northern Europe also needs to take into account politics and public opinion.

Mutual debt within the EU has always been the brightest of all red lines for the Germans, the Dutch, the Aussies, the Finns, and some other nations. If it is passed now – in times of crisis – a ticking bomb in the union could be laid.

The danger that the South Europeans will feel abandoned by the North must be weighed against the risk that the North Europeans will feel exploited by the South at some later point. Italians and Spaniards rightly resent being called lazy and wasteful southerners. But portraying Northerners as rich and arrogant selfish is also unfair – especially when it is accompanied by references to Nazism and accusations of immorality.

Voters in the Netherlands and Germany also feel drained by years of austerity. Both countries were also severely affected by the coronavirus. Hospitals in the Netherlands are on the verge of getting out of bed.

The long-term fears of northern Europeans are also legitimate. As a Dutch friend of mine said with the excuse, “We know that the savings are in the North and the debts are in the South”. Northerners are vigilant about any sign of being permanently involved in large cash transfers to EU debtors. They are justifiably concerned that the current crisis is being used to push ideas that they have repeatedly rejected.