Italy pessimistic on EMU

THE majority of Italians do not believe Italy will be a founder member of the planned European single currency and are not prepared…

THE majority of Italians do not believe Italy will be a founder member of the planned European single currency and are not prepared to make any more sacrifices to ensure it does, an opinion poll published yesterday said. The Explorer poll carried out for La Stampa newspaper said 51.2 per cent of people had little or no hope that Italy would join European economic and monetary union (EMU), despite years of tough budgetary rigour from successive governments. And in a country which has traditionally been a fervent supporter of EMU, a massive 70.7 per cent of those asked said they did not want to pay any more to guarantee Italy's euro bid - up 17 percentage points on December.