Results of the poll conducted by public broadcaster ZDF on March 13 showed that 52
percent of Germans no longer want Greece to remain in
Europe’s common currency, up from 41 percent last month.
Eighty percent percent of Germans hold a view that Greece’s government “isn’t behaving seriously toward its European partners.”
“The way the Greeks have been behaving has been impossible. Now they’re making their own demands with these reparations,” said Dorli Schneider, an interpreter waiting for a train at Munich’s central station. “Greece should pay back what they owe. We can’t forever give them more money.”
The change in opinions comes as Greece, on the verge of running out of cash this month, battles with European officials over the release of more bailout funds. Prime Minister Alexis Tspipras has also stepped up calls for war reparations from Germany for the Nazi occupation during World War II and Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has been locked in a war of words with his German counterpart Wolfgang Schaeuble. Last week, the Greek government officially complained about Schaeuble’s conduct, to which Schaeuble replied that the whole matter was “absurd.”
The hardening of German opinion is important, as Germany is the biggest contributor to Greece’s 240 billion-euro
($252 billion) twin bailouts and the main proponent of budget
cuts and reforms in return for aid.
After Tsipras took office in January, promising to end an austerity drive that he blames on Chancellor Angela Merkel, tensions have been escalating between the two governments.
Problem for Merkel
German voters’ resentment may make it harder for Merkel to sell any possible deal down the road to the German public and Budestag, which would have to vote on it. According to Juergen Falter, a political scientist at the Johannes Gutenberg University, she also has to be wary of the anti-euro AfD party trying to peel off her voters.
“The pressure is coming from two sides: the public and some opposition parties,” he said. “The government will probably now react more decisively.”
While Merkel’s government says Greece doesn’t have a carte blanche in its actions, Germany’s official aim is to keep the
euro area together.
Just 40 percent of Germans now say they want Greece to remain in the euro.
