The Crisis in Greece: Who’s To Blame?

EU citizens hold Greek government responsible for debt crisis. An Ipsos survey of citizens of nine European Union countries finds most people hold the Greek government responsible for the ongoing debt crisis. Some 88% say the Greek government is a great deal, or a fair amount, to blame for the crisis –rising to 94% among German respondents. The German government was mentioned by 46%, attracting less blame than the Greek populace, the IMF and the European Commission overall.

The survey also found broad agreement (61%) that the austerity measures being imposed on Greece are making their economy worse. Those in Italy and Spain are most likely to raise such concerns and those in Poland and Sweden least likely to think austerity is exacerbating the problem.

 

Despite the consensus that austerity is damaging the Greek economy further, a clear majority (73%) think Greece should repay all of their debts, so as not to encourage other countries to default on debt in future. Only 46% agreed that some of Greece’s debt should be written off, with the Italians, Poles and Brits being most in favour of some debt relief.

 

The results also suggest some concern among EU citizens about whether the Eurozone is resilient enough to weather the current storm - across all nations, only 51% think the Eurozone is strong enough to survive the crisis without serious damage, and 72% think it likely the recent crisis could be repeated in another Eurozone country.

 

Greek crisis responsibility

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