The Dutch grumble over Europe's coronavirus cheque

Editor’s note: The Economist is making some of its most important coverage of the covid-19 pandemic freely available to readers of The Economist Today, our daily newsletter. To receive it, register here. For our coronavirus tracker and more coverage, see our hub

THE DUTCH Golden Age fell apart in 1672, when surrounding powers—England, France and a pair of German principalities—teamed up to sack the Netherlands and seize its colonies. Ever since, the small country’s diplomats have made it a principle never to become isolated against a united European front. Yet as the Eurogroup (the finance ministers of the 19 countries that use the euro) planned their response to covid-19 this month, the Netherlands found itself alone. For 36 hours the thrifty Dutch were the sole holdouts against a deal to help afflicted countries tackle recession.