One in three Germans in favour of EU exit: Poll

Almost a third of Germans would vote in favour of their country leaving the European Union, as urvey published on Tuesday showed, indicating widespread scepticism towards Europe among citizens of the bloc’s biggest member.

Historically ardent Europeans, disenchantment towards the EU has grown among Germans with many uneasy about the influx of more than one million migrants in 2015 and angry at having to bail out Greece in the debt crisis.

The YouGov poll for Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper found that only 54 per cent of Germans supported staying in the EU,while 29 per cent would want to leave the bloc if a referendum were held on membership.

In Britain, more voters have shifted towards voting to leave the European Union in June’s referendum according to two surveys by polling firm ICM published on Tuesday, surprising investors and sending sterling sharply lower.

A telephone poll for the Guardian newspaper showed 45 per cent of respondents favoured leaving the EU compared with 42 per cent who said they would vote to stay in the bloc.

Telephone polls have tended to give the Remain campaign a comfortable lead over those wanting to vote to leave the 28-member bloc. A previous ICM telephone poll published on May 16 showed the Remain side holding an eight percentage pointlead.

Meanwhile, Poland’s deputy foreign minister Konrad Szymanski said that a British exit from the European Union would not necessarily lead to a significant fall in the number of Polish migrants going to work in Britain.

“One could imagine that practical consequences of this great (referendum) tension are negligible,” Mr Szymanski said at Eastern Europe Investment Summit.