This article first reviews the situation of public finances in the euro area member States, specifying the impact that the coronavirus crisis may have on them and reviewing the divergences between the public finances of the various countries. On this basis, the article looks at the solutions that will have to be found to the problem of public finances and the inevitable tensions that will arise in the management of the problem. Finally, the article argues that the European Central Bank (ECB) will be the epicenter of these tensions, caught between its mandate, the need to support the sustainability of the euro and diverging views on what it can or cannot do. As an epilogue, the article discusses some extreme solutions to the issue of public debt.
