Nobody asked the German people if they wanted the euro. Now, almost 15 years after Europe introduced its common currency, a new political party has emerged to campaign for a return to the deutsche mark.
Judging by an opinion poll last month, Alternative for Germany has hit a nerve. The party has existed for less than a month, yet the poll by Infratest Dimap found that 24 percent of Germans would consider voting for it in September's federal elections. Are Germans on their way to rejecting the euro?
The answer isn't simple or well understood, which is surprising given Germany's centrality to the euro's survival and how much the global economy depends on a healthy resolution to the currency's troubles. It starts, however, with the choice that Germans were never given: whether to abolish their own currency.
In the 1990s, as preparations were under way to create the euro, Chancellor Helmut Kohl counted himself lucky that the German Constitution didn't allow for referendums. Kohl accepted the currency union because he saw it as the only way to make the reunification of East and West Germany palatable to the rest of Europe. The French, in particular, feared the new German state would be too powerful. The price they demanded was the euro, which they saw as a great leap forward in the European Union's integration.
Unpopular Euro
Had the German people been asked if they wanted the new currency, they probably would have said no, because it would have meant giving up the deutsche mark. Such a rejection would have upset the deal Europe's political elite had made on German reunification, throwing the EU into disarray.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-01/for-germans-there-is-no-alternative-to-the-euro.html
Judging by an opinion poll last month, Alternative for Germany has hit a nerve. The party has existed for less than a month, yet the poll by Infratest Dimap found that 24 percent of Germans would consider voting for it in September's federal elections. Are Germans on their way to rejecting the euro?
The answer isn't simple or well understood, which is surprising given Germany's centrality to the euro's survival and how much the global economy depends on a healthy resolution to the currency's troubles. It starts, however, with the choice that Germans were never given: whether to abolish their own currency.
In the 1990s, as preparations were under way to create the euro, Chancellor Helmut Kohl counted himself lucky that the German Constitution didn't allow for referendums. Kohl accepted the currency union because he saw it as the only way to make the reunification of East and West Germany palatable to the rest of Europe. The French, in particular, feared the new German state would be too powerful. The price they demanded was the euro, which they saw as a great leap forward in the European Union's integration.
Unpopular Euro
Had the German people been asked if they wanted the new currency, they probably would have said no, because it would have meant giving up the deutsche mark. Such a rejection would have upset the deal Europe's political elite had made on German reunification, throwing the EU into disarray.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-01/for-germans-there-is-no-alternative-to-the-euro.html
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