Germans sceptical of Greek deal

More than half of Germans think the planned deal with Greece is bad and many would have preferred that the crisis-stricken country left the eurozone rather than receiving further aid, according to an opinion poll.

Lawmakers in Germany, the biggest contributor to the eurozone bailouts, on Friday (17 July) gave their go-ahead for the currency bloc to negotiate a third bailout for Greece that could total €86 billion($93bn) over three years.

In the YouGov survey seen by German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, 56% of respondents said they thought the plan for such a deal with Greece was bad, with just over one fifth of those saying it was very bad.

Only 2% deemed it to be positive while another 27% said they thought it was "somewhat positive".

The poll of 1,380 Germans showed there was a lack of enthusiasm in Europe's largest economy about the result of Friday's vote, Welt am Sonntag said on Sunday (19 July), adding that the poll showed 48% of Germans would have liked to see Greece quit the eurozone.

Only a third clearly said they wanted the country to remain a member of the single currency bloc, the newspaper said.

A separate survey by pollster Forsa published on Friday showed that 53% of German voters had wanted parliament to back the negotiations, with 42% against.

($1 = €0.9236) (Reuters)

Share this article: