A survey published by the magazine Stern, with details online via here, has 74 percent of the 1,004 Germans polled against the idea of a United States of Europe. Only 22 percent support the idea of abandoning the nation state.
The poll, carried out by the Forsa organisation, also has 63 percent against the idea of an elected EU president, with only 33 percent in favour, and 59 percent oppose the transfer of further financial powers from the Bundesbank to EU institutions. Only 36 percent are in favour.
As to eurobonds, these also got a huge thumbs-down, with 73 percent against, as opposed to a mere 17 percent supporting the idea. Yet, despite all this, 54 percent of Germans still think that introducing the euro was the right thing to do. And, looking to the future, 69 percent of those polled agreed that there should be a referendum of there is any further transfer of sovereignty to Brussels.
This conveys a much stronger message than the a poll published this weekend by Welt am Sonntag. That had 43 percent of respondents supporting a United States of Europe, with 51 percent speaking out against further political and economic integration.
Similar proportions were found in relation to giving Brussels more financial powers – with 43 percent for and 52 percent against.
The Welt survey might have made a referendum look winnable to Merkel, and may have contributed to her new determination to press ahead with a treaty. If that was the case, this current poll is a setback, perhaps indicating a hardening of opinion against the project.
Meanwhile, back in the UK, the europhile New Statesman asserts that the failure of politicians in the UK on all sides to make the "positive case for Europe" is one of the reasons why the debate about a referendum has now reached fever pitch.
An "in/out" referendum, it claims, can be won, but "politicians who favour remaining in and pushing back the UKIP tide must start to make the positive case".
However, this may be a tad optimistic, to put it mildly. And if sentiment is hardening in Germany, where support for "Europe" is traditionally strong, it seems unlikely that the British public will soften its views. The europhiles are in for a harder fight than they are letting on.
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