Poll: 49% of Germans want Greece out

Nearly half of Germans want Greece to leave the eurozone and a third is very afraidthe country’s debt crisis could threaten the euro, a poll in Stern magazine showed yesterday.

According to a survey of 1,001 Germans conducted by Forsa research institute, 49% of those polled want Greece to quit the single currency while 39% want it to stay.

Nearly two thirds want German chancellor Angela Merkel to keep insisting that Greece stick to agreed austerity measures despite growing criticism of this course in other eurozone countries such as France, the poll said.

The Greek election on June 17, the second in two months, is widely seen as a referendum on whether the debt-laden country should stay in the eurozone and press on with painful reforms or leave and go back to its old drachma currency.

Polls suggest the vote could go either way, with support for pro- and anti-austerity parties finely balanced.

In yesterday’s survey, nearly two thirds of Germans polled said that they didn’t understand why Greeks wanted to vote for opponents of austerity measures.

A third of Germans said they would have second thoughts about spending their holidays in Greece.

Greece’s income from tourism dropped 15% in the first quarter, with fewer holidaymakers from Germany and Britain, Greece’s biggest tourist markets.

Reuters