Europeans Unwilling to Pay Off Greece’s Debt - Poll

A majority of German, UK, and French citizens believe that Greece should pay the entire amount of its debt on its own, without any help from the European Union, a poll conducted by ICM Research exclusively for Sputnik revealed Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Greece's overall debt is currently estimated to be around $350 billion, of which $270 billion is owed to its three biggest lenders: the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Commission and the European Central Bank.

According to the ICM poll, which involved over 4,000 respondents in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Greece, 62 percent of British citizens and 69 percent of the citizens of Germany responded by saying that Athens must pay back its entire debt. In France, only 50 percent of respondents shared this view, according to the ICM poll.

Meanwhile, only 25 percent of Greeks polled think that their country should pay off its creditors and 55 percent believe the country’s debt should be written off.

Within the four national groups polled, only a small share wants to see the European Union (six percent) or the so-called troika of international creditors (eight percent) take responsibility for the Greek debt.

Greece was hard-hit by the global financial crisis of 2008-2009, leaving its government reliant on loans from international creditors.

On Sunday, Greek Minister of the Interior Nikos Voutsis said that the country does not have enough money to make the next scheduled payment on its debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) this June.

The international public opinion research project Sputnik.Polls was launched in 2014, in conjunction with leading British public opinion survey specialists ICM Research. It conducts regular opinion polls to monitor public sentiment toward social, political and cultural issues in Europe and the United States.