A majority of French people believe the switch to the euro five years ago was bad for their country, according to a recent poll, which suggests the French blame the common European currency for damaging economic growth and causing price hikes. Ahead of Slovenia’s entry into the eurozone on Monday, a TNS-Sofres survey published on 27 December showed that 52% of French respondents think that giving up the franc has been "quite bad" or "very bad" for France, compared with 45% three years ago. Even 94% were convinced the euro has fuelled inflation.
An article in Libération last week noted that according to a Eurobarometer poll in September 2006, 48% of people thought the euro was overall worthwhile and 38% thought it disadvantageous, noting the “enormous” loss in popularity compared with September 2002 when these figures were 59% (worthwhile) and 29% (disadvantageous). It also notes that according to the same poll in 2006, 81.4% of people blamed the euro for price rises. Le Figaro (on January 3, 2007) reports on a poll by TNS-Direct which shows that 77% of French small business leaders think the change to the euro brought price rises for the products and services they use.
A Forsa poll showed a similar result for Germany: Five years after the entry into circulation of euro notes and coins, Die Welt reported on December 20, 2006 that according to a new Forsa poll, 58% of Germans want to go back to their former currency, the D-mark. Die Welt notes that last month, another study showed that three quarters of Germans still do mental conversions into the Deutsche D-mark to work out costs in their everyday lives. According to the TNT-Sofres poll 25% of all French still think in francs "the whole time" when shopping. Former national currencies are used for calculations in major purchases most often by the Belgians (65%), by the Dutch (57%) and by Austrians (55%), according to a Eurobarometer poll published ahead of the 5th anniversary of the euro.
