Polls Show Europeans Very Unhappy with the Euro Single Currency

A French-language newspaper in Switzerland published an article today about the attitude of citizens of Eurozone countries toward their Euro currency, the single currency as it is often called. Somewhat surprisingly, the major French TV channel devoted a report on today's evening news  to the same topic.

According to recent polls, the Euro is seen mostly as the mechanism whereby the cost of living was significantly raised because prices of ordinary items and food products have risen sharply in the 10 years that the Euro has existed. One of the original arguments for the implementation of the single currency - that the Euro would make travel easier by eliminating the need to change money as travellers crossed borders in Europe - is dismissed as irrelevant by most ordinary people.

An economist quoted by the Swiss paper said that the perception of the Euro as “an augmentation of prices” has not subsided and that it is the basic reason for Eurozone citizens’ unhappiness.  

For that reason as well as others, the Euro is disliked and seen as something to be tolerated rather than embraced by the some 332 million citizens in the 17 Eurozone countries that use it as their currency.

The Swiss newspaper rep0rted that 32% of French interviewed want to see the return of their French Franc. This desire is expressed among all regions from Normandy to the Côte d’Azur. The French TV report gave similar results.

Spanish citizens say that “the Euro is the worst thing that ever happened” to their country.

As one could well imagine, the current financial crisis, with its high rates of unemployment and contraction of social services, has simply reinforced the belief that the Euro is partly to blame and that it will make matters worse rather than better.

There is the tale told by a grandmother of a lollipop that used to cost 1.5 French Francs now costing 2 Euros…that would be like an American lollipop going from 25 cents to almost $2.50.

And, also as we might expect, dissatisfaction with the Euro leads to dissatisfaction with the entity that created it and foisted it on hundreds of millions of Europeans - the European Union.

Some European Union countries refused to join the Eurozone by rejecting the Euro - Denmark, Sweden and Great Britain.

Other countries in Europe refused even to join the European Union - notably Norway and Switzerland.

But, with the crisis caused by the public debt load of countries in the Eurozone, all of these non-participating countries are providing capital infusions to try to hold the Eurozone and the European Union together, at least until a rational way of dismantling it can be devised and agreed upon.

And, although they do not want to talk about it, most large European banks are now putting in place action plans to help them get through a collapse of the Euro. Not talking is their way of trying not to precipitate the very thing that they know will cause them losses and disruption.  

Dear readers, all is not well in the Eurozone on the eve of 2012. And it won’t be for some time to come…not until the Euro either recovers, which is not thought likely, or is put out of its misery as efficiently and calmly as possible.