Germans have very limited appetite for further European integration and want euro membership restricted to a select club, a Yougov poll for think tank Open Europe found it was announced on September 3 less than three weeks before Germany heads to the polls.
“German voters’ support for ‘more Europe’ seems to be mostly limited to strict control over other countries’ spending," said Open Europe policy analyst Nina Schick. "On all other eurozone initiatives currently being discussed – including debt write-downs and a banking union – a majority of Germans remain opposed. The question is if the next German chancellor is prepared to press ahead with more eurozone integration anyway, risking the gap between voters and politicians widening further.”
Most German voters want the euro slimmed down with 55% saying that Germany should keep the euro but membership should be restricted to a select group of more similar countries”. But nearly half (46%) don't believe that the euro should be saved "at any cost" and many (42%) blow think that they euro is threatening the European project.
All forms of further financial support to fellow eurozone countries are rejected by voters in Europe's strongest economy. Just over half (52%) don’t want the next government to commit to further loans for crisis-hit eurozone members (35% tend to agree); 57% said the next government should not have the mandate to forgive some debt owed by Southern eurozone countries (31% tend to agree); 56% of voters said the next government would not have the mandate to sign up to a joint backstop for banks (29% agreed), while 64% and seven in ten (70%) respectively, said the same of debt pooling via eurobonds and fiscal transfers.
Essentially this means that German voters disagree with all options currently on the table for Greece even though both their Chancellor and Finance Minister recently acknowledged that Greece will need further aid on top of the €240bn bailout it has already received.
Almost two-thirds (65%) of them want the next Chancellor to sign up to more money going to other eurozone countries on the condition that a referendum was held beforehand.
In a worrying sign for Europe's political leader and the ECB, there was considerable support for the German Constitutional Court to rule the ECB’s bond-buying programme (OMT) illegal in its on-going court case. By a margin of almost two to one (46% to 25%), Germans said the Court should rule against the OMT if the stability of the euro could be ensured in other ways. Over a third (35%) said that the Court should rule against the OMT, even if that threatens the stability of the euro. In a strong indication of how seriously Germans take the rule of law, almost half (48%) of those asked said upholding the law is more important than saving the euro (30% disagreed).
There was also strong opposition to EBC activism even it proved beneficial for the eurozone as a whole. German voters demonstrated considerable scepticism about the ECB easing its focus on maintaining price stability, even if it was deemed beneficial for the eurozone as a whole, with six in ten voters (62%) opposing such a move, compared to only one in four (25%) backing it.
European ‘Political union’ is only supported if it means stronger budget controls - 52%support turning the eurozone into a “political union, with stronger central budget controls” but when “political union” is defined as including “fiscal transfers”, this majority is reversed with 55% of Germans being against and only 30% supportive.
Open Europe and Yougov say the finding show that there is a mismatch between mainstream politicians’ and voters’ views on Europe. On the question of which party best reflects voters’ opinions about European and eurozone policy, irrespective of who they intend to vote for, both the CDU/CSU (29%) and the SPD (18%) score well below their wider support. Interestingly, ‘Don’t know’(15%) and ‘none’ (11%) scored third and fourth, ahead of any other party, while only 5% say the anti-euro AfD best reflects their views.
With polls predicting Chancellor Merkel will continue to govern Germany for a third term, "the question is if the next German chancellor is prepared to press ahead with more euro zone integration anyway, risking the gap between voters and politicians widening further," said Open Europe's Schick.
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