Submitted by Taps Coogan on the 12th of September 2017 to The Sounding Line.

There is more bad news for the EU today as research from Bertelsmann Stiftung indicates that nearly two thirds (64%) of citizens in the EU are unsatisfied with the direction that their respective country is taking. Furthermore, only 32% of respondents felt that their economic situation had improved in the last two years.

You will find more statistics at Statista

Germany appears to be the only large EU country where the majority are satisfied with the country’s direction. That shouldn’t come as too big of a surprise considering that Germany has been the overwhelming and nearly sole economic benefactor of the EU’s common market system. At the other end of the spectrum is Italy, which has seen only 1% real economic growth since 2000, one of the worst economic performances in the entire world. Unsurprisingly, 87% of Italians are unsatisfied with the direction of their country.

The next Italian general election will take place sometime before May 20th, 2018. As we discussed here, a wide majority of Italian voters support Euro-skeptic parties.

While the election of Emmanuel Macron in France brought the EU much needed breathing room this summer, that reprieve seems to be fast coming to an end. With the UK already on its way out of the EU, Italy becomes the Union’s third largest economy. If it too moves away from the Euro and/or the EU, what’s left will start looking a lot less like a European Union.

P.S. We have added email distribution for The Sounding Line. If you would like to be updated via email when we post a new article, please click here. It’s free and we won’t send any promotional materials.