Germans Show Lowest Support for Keeping Euro in Four-Nation Poll

Germans showed the lowest support for the euro among the four largest nations using the currency, according to a poll published in four European newspapers today.

The poll shows 39 percent of Germans favor leaving the euro, versus 28 percent of Italians, 26 percent of French and 24 percent of Spaniards, according to the survey, conducted by Ifop-Fiducial and published in Madrid-based ABC, Germany’s Bild, Italy’s Corriere della Sera and Le Journal du Dimanche.

In all four countries, majorities said that loans to Greece will never be paid back, even as most said that not saving Greece would increase the euro region’s difficulties “dangerously,” ABC said. In France and Germany, most of those polled said Greece should leave the euro if it can’t pay back its loans, while in Italy and Spain about half shared that view.

The surveys were carried out from June 18 to June 21 and questioned 976 people in Spain, 1001 in France, 1003 in Germany and 967 in Italy, ABC said. No margin of error was given.

To contact the reporter on this story: Emma Ross-Thomas in Madrid at erossthomas@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Craig Stirling at cstirling1@bloomberg.net