Recent MPIfG survey: Germans Do Not Reject Eurobonds in General

An MPIfG survey from early April 2020 shows: When given an opportunity to consider all aspects of the matter, German citizens are willing to agree to forms of debt mutualization to keep the Eurozone intact.

The Covid-19 pandemic is the biggest challenge to Europe’s economies since the Great Depression. Countries like Germany and the Netherlands will have greater fiscal space to respond to it, while countries like Italy and Spain will be unable to increase their public debts without their bond yields spiking.
 
To give the worst hit countries additional fiscal space to respond to the health emergency, nine Eurozone governments and many economists have argued for the introduction of Eurobonds or Coronabonds. Yet this proposal is controversial. In particular, German politicians have often argued that they can't agree to Eurobonds because their voters are strongly opposed to them. But is it true?
 
A large MPIfG survey fielded in early April shows that German public opinion is more open to the idea than German politicians make it out to be. In particular, German citizens seem concerned by the possible costs of a Euro break-up, should Italy leave the single currency, and seem willing to agree to forms of debt mutualization to keep the Eurozone intact. Data from another parallel experiment, which the researchers conducted in Italy at the same time, suggest that the Italian electorate has indeed reached the point where Italexit becomes a serious option, and if it happens the costs would be high for Germany as well. The MPIfG team, headed by Lucio Baccaro, director at the MPIfG, concludes that “German political leaders would do well to worry more about the political consequences of the current crisis in Italy than in Germany”.