Are southern Europeans unfairly punished for being more responsible than northern Europeans?
Southerners tend to get in very little personal debt, and make choices like moving out late to not get into debt, however under the current system money can only be created as debt:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_as_Debt
Since southern people unlike northerners create so little debt, their governments have no choice other than get into debt or there will be a shortage of money in the system.
Germans are an exception because they have half of the world's exports.