a curious Yankee in Europe's court

blog about living in Europe, and Italy

Who wants to leave the Euro?

Posted on the November 11th, 2011

Surely I’m not the only one to take notice that the bulk of the doomsday talk these days about the imminent fall of the euro is coming either from outside Europe or from eurosceptics.

An underlying assumption of this dire talk, perhaps, may be the idea that eurozone citizens are so discontented that they are demanding return to national currencies. But where is there evidence of this?  Even most Greeks, supposedly mad as hell at EU leadership, reportedly want to stay with the euro (see here, for example).

And, although it’s admittedly an anecdotal report, I can say I’ve not heard or seen either a peep or a scribble of any such San Pietro! let’s return to the lira talk here in Italy either. That is, except for the usual disgruntled voices of the northern far right who, more or less, want to exit everything including the southern half of their own country.

And then this just now in the UK Guardian‘s live blog on the eurozone crisis:

1.47pm: Almost four out of five Germans believe the 17-nation single currency will survive, according to poll for ZDF television. Some 78% of people asked said the euro would survive despite its problems while 56% felt chancellor Angela Merkel was doing a good job of managing the crisis. That’s an improvement on a similar poll in October which had her approval rating at 45%.

How much of a role does the European public play in the rise or fall of the euro? I have no idea really, given the murky fog that constitutes most financial reporting, and the politicians’ backroom political jockeying. But if eurozone voters’ support is needed to drive the currency into collapse, seems to me that’s a non-starter.

Reader Comments (6) - Comments are closed
  1. Lesley said, on November 11th, 2011 at 5:49 pm

    Attagirl!

    (Sorry if that somehow falls short of the excellent example you have set 😉 .)

  2. sam said, on November 11th, 2011 at 8:03 pm

    Seems right on to me.

  3. antonella said, on November 12th, 2011 at 11:05 am

    niente uova
    è stata dura capire, ma alla fine ce l’ho fatta, e ti chiedo di farlo ancora, scrivi di politica, è interessante e mi piace cara attagirl leggerti
    aspetto il seguito

  4. Phil Mills said, on November 12th, 2011 at 8:59 pm

    I don’t see how any one could leave the euro if they wanted – as soon as it was announced everyone would take their savings out (in euros) or as much money as they could get out of the cash machine, since they day after the return to the national currency it would drop like a fast dropping thing – which means all your national banks are bankrupt as well as a worthless currency…

  5. Denbo said, on November 13th, 2011 at 12:33 am

    All the doom and gloom of a two speed Europe are coming from the leaders of the EU themselves aka.. the Frankfurt Group.

    When I worked in Europe I never quite understood why Americans always saw Europe through rose coloured glasses.

  6. […] citizens are so discontented that they are demanding return to national currencies.” (Passing comments) “Some MEPs may have forgotten the cash-for-influence scandal in March, but European voters […]