Distrust in the EU "as an institution" grows. Amazingly

It was always the British who showed least trust in the EU among EU member countries. No longer.

In the latest Eurobarometer poll, British distrust of the EU “as an institution” (whatever that means) had risen from 49% in May 2007 to 69% in November 2012.

We aren’t given numbers for disillusioned Greece. But the sluggardly British were easily outpaced by the Spanish, whose distrust rose from 23% to 72%. Yes, for years the EU made them richer, but now it’s making them poorer. Indeed, unemployment has risen since that polling in November, and is now at a record 27.16%.

In Italy distrust in November had risen to 53%. What a lot has happened since then! The EU-imposed government has been defeated in elections, and after a pause Italy finally has an incoming Prime Minister, one Enrico Letta, who has apparently vowed to lead the charge against austerity in Europe. Yet, reports Ambrose

It is hard to imagine a man less inclined to throw down the gauntlet and force a radical change in EU policy before Italy’s economy chokes to death. He grew up in Strasbourg. He wrote his PhD on EU community law.

He is just as wedded to the EU Project as the man he replaces, ex-EU commissioner Mario Monti, who surrounded himself in Rome with Brussels emigrés still on the EU payroll.

This member of the EU political club doesn’t seem the man to take Italy out of the wrong currency. Sooner or later Italian voters will upend this élitist club.

Even in France and Germany the distrusters were in the majority … in France they were 56% and in Germany 59% – even more than Italy. The German figure must worry the political élite the most. The new German anti-euro group, the AFD, must be encouraged by these five-month-old figures.

Note it’s not the euro people are saying they distrust. In theory they could excoriate the euro but still feel positive about the EU “as an institution”.

But it seems they don’t.