How is this different from the 52 states (plus the rest of the world) borrowing dollars from the Federal Reserve, dollars, which too get printed out of thin air?
It's same everywhere, but before 1971 fiat money were backed by gold, so they were not printed out of nothing
It's like a magic: you built the second floor of a house and removed the first floor, and the second floor just floated in air. But for how long will it float there?
Central banks successfully controlled the society through a fact: People want to earn money. Since the money has universal equivalence property, it is the hub of all product/service exchange. If there are many other ways to exchange product/service, then central banks won't gain much control and their money printing won't work. And Central banks try their best to make the value of fiat money appears to be stable for 99% of people
Back to the topic, Portugal was using escudo which is also freely printed by their central bank, how come they were willing to give up this right to ECB? I guess maybe their central bank get some hidden benefits joining the ECB