Do Germans support the euro?
Do Germans support the euro?

Author(s): Daniel Gros, Felix Roth
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, History, Social Sciences, Economy, Civil Society, Sociology, Economic history, Recent History (1900 till today), Economic policy, Evaluation research, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment, Financial Markets
Published by: CEPS Centre for European Policy Studies
Keywords: Euro support; Germany and German public; financial and sovereign debt crisis; Allensbach surveys;
Summary/Abstract: This paper analyses public support for the euro in Germany. Drawing from the results of regular Eurobarometer surveys, it finds that the ongoing financial and sovereign debt crisis has reduced support for the euro among German citizens, but not dramatically so – at least not yet. In the 1990s, the German public was sceptical towards the euro. But since the introduction of euro bank notes and coins, a clear majority of citizens supports the euro –despite the financial and sovereign debt crisis. Moreover, on average, support for the euro isat a similar level in Germany as it is elsewhere in the euro area. This salient finding, however, appears to contradict the results of a survey conducted by the Allensbach Institute, an influential public opinion polling centre in Germany, which concludes that an overwhelming majority of Germans do not trust the euro any more. We suggest that this striking difference in findings could be due to three factors: a) the fact that the Allensbach Institute and Eurobarometer were measuring different concepts: trust in the euro and support for the euro, respectively; b) the Allensbach Institute’s results might be biased, given the scaling of their trust question and c) the fact that Eurobarometer frames its survey questions explicitly in a European context, where as the Allensbach surveys have a purely national context.

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