LONDON — The debt crisis that has ravaged Europe for the best part of three years has exposed a dislike of the single currency but little desire to abandon it, a wide-ranging survey of public opinion found Tuesday.
Pew Research Center’s survey across eight European Union countries, including five members of the 17-country eurozone, indicated that the region’s financial problems have triggered full-blown fears about the future of Europe as a political project.
Despite those concerns, Pew found there was no desire for those countries that use the euro to return to their former currencies, such as the French franc or the Spanish peseta. The euro launched in 1999 and is now used by 17 countries.
In Greece, the epicenter of the debt crisis, 71 percent of those polled want to keep the euro versus 23 percent who want to return to the drachma. More people in Greece, which is now in its fifth year of a savage recession, think the euro has been good for them — 46 percent of those surveyed, compared with 26 percent who thought it was a bad thing.
