Europe is very unpopular these days in the two countries generally considered to be the heart of the European Union. In France, where the Masstricht Treaty was approved in 1992 by a close 51-49 vote, it would lose massively today, with only 36% in favor. In Germany, 65% say they would be doing better if Germany had kept the Deutschmark and 49% say they would be doing better if the EU did not exist.
These are alarming numbers for leaders facing a summit in December at which the future direction of the EU will be decided. Economic logic says that the euro cannot be sustained indefinitely without a closer union equipped with tax-collecting and redistributive institutions, but this would require a treaty modification and ratification whose prospects seem dismal indeed given the above polling results. But the euro is "irreversible," dixit Mario Draghi. So Merkel and Holland find themselves between a rock and a hard place.
The euro crisis has become a crisis of the European Union.
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