The Strategist

Germans Vote for Grexit



06/17/2015 - 16:43



A clear majority of Germans - 58 percent – are for a Greek exit from the euro zone, the opposite opinion is shared by only 28 percent of respondents, according to a survey conducted by the sociological institute YouGov. The results have been made public on Wednesday, June 17.



Meanwhile, a number of authoritative experts have warned about the negative consequences of Grexit. - If we now say" enough ", then Germany immediately lose 70 billion euros, - said the German Institute for Economic Research president Marcel Fratzscher in an interview with the newspaper Saarbrücker Zeitung.

Fratzscher also warned that after Greece, a threat can hover over other countries, such as Italy, that have huge problems too. "We are all sitting in the same boat. Either we all lose, and the biggest loser is Greece, or we all win," - said the economist.

According to the American economist Dennis Snower, Director of the Institute of World Economy in Kiel, Grexit will destabilize Europe. "Grexit is associated with an extremely high risk, and it is utterly difficult to predict the political consequences," - he stressed.

For its part, the French finance minister Michel Sapin noted that European treaties do not foresee the possibility of an EU member’s rejection of Euro. "I urge not to step on unfamiliar territory," - he said in an interview with the Paris newspaper Le Figaro.

A German observer Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger said that the Greek crisis lasts unreasonably long.

 - The Greek tragedy has been going on for six years, and now appears to stay forever. Now we seem to have come to the climax: either Athens declare a default and chose a legal basis to exit the euro zone (and, perhaps, the European Union), or the creditors once again agree to accept the terms of the negotiation of the Greek government, despite the fact that its willingness to reform is scanty, and self-confidence is unbearable. Anyway, that cannot continue. The public is fed up, patience is exhausted: the EU and the euro area are having image losses, the unity cracks.

This concern for the preservation of the unity of the monetary union, as well as adhering to the principle of solidarity, forced the Eurozone countries together with IMF and the European Central Bank to allocate aid packages for Greece and other crisis countries. They were worthy of respect decisions, even if they run counter to the European treaties. Leaders of the European Union, and the German government feared monetary, and perhaps even more, the political consequences of the so-called Grexit.

Today, these concerns are especially large, since the debt crisis was added to the major geopolitical conflict in Europe, the crisis in relations between Ukraine and Russia, and now threatens to splice these crises. Once the first stone fall from the European home, Europe will be in a different state of aggregation –this is the view of the German economy minister Sigmar Gabriel shared by many in Europe. If the European tissue begins to bulge at the sides, who knows what else will quit, and what forces will take advantage of this erosion?

source: dw.de