Europeans divided over austerity, want alternatives

As the European Commission is about to present proposals to strengthen the "social dimension of the economic and monetary union", a new poll shows that up to 60% of Europeans believe there are better ways of solving the economic crisis than austerity.
The results of the survey, released by pollster firm Gallup this morning (2 October), confirms that public opinion rejects the idea that the only way of fighting the crisis is by cutting costs.

In crisis-hit countries of Southern Europe, support for austerity measures is very low: as many as 94% of Greeks, 81% of Portuguese and 80% of Spaniards believe there are better alternatives.

More than half of the respondents (51%) argued austerity policies have failed to fight the crisis. Just 5% said the policies were in fact delivering results. Europeans with the most trust in austerity policies were Bulgarians (67%) and Hungarians (62%).

When asked who benefits from austerity policies, 67% of respondents said “only certain countries," with 77% of this group pointing the finger at Germany.

The poll, conducted by Gallup and for the online platform Debating Europe, surveyed a total of 6,177 European citizens across the EU. It was conducted in the margins of the yearly roundtable by the Friends of Europe think tank, called State of Europe, which will be held later today and will debate a way forward.

Αναλυτικότερα:
www.euractiv.com