Italian Citizens Want Italy to Leave the European Union, New Poll Reveals
Anti-EU sentiment surges amid coronavirus, leading to calls for 'Italexit'
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The people of Italy are ready to walk away from the European Union as anti-EU sentiment surges amid the coronavirus pandemic, a new poll has revealed.
Many Italians feel their country has been neglected by the bloc during the worst crisis faced by Italy in recent history.
Frustration toward the EU is mounting in many countries as heated negotiations over financial aid for nations affected by the COVID-19 pandemic have dragged on in Brussels.
In Italy, the hardest-hit member of the bloc during the crisis, this sentiment is particularly apparent.
Belgium, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain have all been pushing for the EU to issue so-called “corona bonds” to help them through the crisis.
The debt from the bonds would be distributed among all countries in the bloc.
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However, Austria, Finland, Germany, and the Netherlands, dubbed the "Frugal Four," are rejecting the suggestion.
The “Frugal Four” are instead calling for the activation of the European Stability Mechanism.
This would allow member states to take out loans in the form of bond purchases from the European Central Bank.
Nowhere has disappointment in the EU been stronger than in Italy.
New polls show that Italians have had enough of what they see as the bloc’s inadequate measures to respond to the crisis.
According to a new poll conducted earlier this month by the Tecne Institute, 49 percent of Italians are now in favor of leaving the EU and the Eurozone altogether.
This number represents a 20 percent increase from the last time such a poll was conducted 18 months ago.
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Another recent survey conducted by Termometro found that nearly 40 percent of Italians are in favor of leaving both the EU and the Eurozone, as reported by Il Sussidiario.
The numbers from the survey suggest that the Tecne poll is accurate.
The Tecne poll recorded that only 40.9 percent of respondents want Italy to remain in the European Union.
The remaining 10 percent either want Italy to only leave the Eurozone or in some cases, for Italy to remain in the Eurozone but leave the EU.
These numbers suggest that if Italy were to hold a referendum on remaining in the EU today, pro-European Italians would lose.
Lega Party MEP Antonio Maria Rinaldi, who is also an economist, suggested last week that Germany was following a “diabolical plan” by pressuring the Netherlands into objecting to the "corona bonds" measure.
It is Germany itself that wants the notion defeated, however, according to Rinaldi.
