The main reason I think it played out differently is that Portugal is considered more united in its other political views than Spain. Even in Portugal the 2015 election that ended (sort of) the austerity policies was highly contentious/fractious. Madrid could not tolerate that kind of clusterfuck without also risking e.g. Catalonian independence. Related to that Portugal also does not have the other half Spain does, the US political backing which works in tandem with the German economic power.
That said, if you listen to German politicians they still don't believe Portugal is out of the GFC and would reinstitute austerity there in a heartbeat given the chance.
I am still missing any evidence Germany exerted any pressure in that regard. It would be different for Greece, obviously.
> That said, if you listen to German politicians they still don't believe Portugal is out of the GFC and would reinstitute austerity there in a heartbeat given the chance.
If you listen to the larger parties of the current German government they would like to "modify" the "Schuldenbremse" (self-inflicted limitation on debt, fixed on constitutional level) to be able to raise more debt. And even in the conservative party the respect for austerity is declining along with the financial well-being of the German federal states.
I am not quite sure what you are hinting at. Could you please clarify?
The only large-scale aid Germany is providing to other EU countries I am aware of are their (internally not disputed) EU contributions. But if I remember correctly Spain is not a large net receiver from those contributions either (barely a net receiver). Also, Germany could not change that without leaving the EU, so I am not sure how that would be any leverage.
I mean the realpolitik of increasing the EU budget, currently for the aid for Ukraine. (If I'm not mistaken.)
Back after 2009 the whole discourse was about bailing out the southern banks, of course not via direct aid, but via ECB operations, standing up various credit/emergency facilities, basically anything that leads to more gross EU credit risk (or risk sharing).
That said, if you listen to German politicians they still don't believe Portugal is out of the GFC and would reinstitute austerity there in a heartbeat given the chance.