Votantes alemanes no quieren mayor integración en eurozona

Genevieve Signoret & Patrick Signoret

Una encuesta a votantes alemanes publicada por Open Europe muestra que la mayoría no quiere mayor integración en la zona del euro. Una mayoría de los encuestados prefiere que Alemania permanezca en la eurozona pero que ésta tenga menos miembros, y rechazó toda propuesta de ayuda financiera adicional para el bloque monetario. La mayoría también expresó oposición hacia las medidas no convencionales del Banco Central Europeo, incluyendo el programa –todavía no activado– de Transacciones Monetarias Directas (OMT).

Resultados principales de la encuesta:

A majority of German voters agree that the euro should be slimmed down: When asked about Germany’s future membership of the euro, 55% of voters said they agreed “Germany should keep the euro but membership should be restricted to a select group of more similar countries”, while only 34% disagreed with this option. Reverting to the D-mark is only backed by one-third of voters (32%) versus 60% opposing it, with a similar breakdown on the option of breaking up the euro completely (30% tend to agree, 59% tend to disagree).

46% said the euro shouldn’t be saved “at any cost”, while 42% said it should.

[…] All forms of further financial support to the eurozone rejected by voters: By a clear majority on every policy queried, German voters do not consider the next German government to have the mandate to press ahead with more direct or indirect financial support to the eurozone after the September 22 elections.

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.

[…] ‘Political union’ is only supported if it means stronger budget controls: Just over half of voters (52%) support turning the eurozone into a “political union, with stronger central budget controls” (34% don’t.) However, when “political union” is defined as including “fiscal transfers”, this majority is reversed with 55% of Germans being against and only 30% supportive.

Support for ruling ECB bond-buying illegal: 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).

Strong opposition to ECB activism – even if beneficial to the euro as a whole: Unsurprisingly, there’s considerable skepticism 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.