Archives for July 11th, 2005

It’s raining euros, hallelujah?

The Scottish newspaper The Sunday Herald recently published a story entitled Slovenia solid in its support for the euro.
It was meant to be an interesting take on how little Slovenia still
had overwhelming faith in the euro despite the EU constitution
meltdown. The author, Ian Fraser, repeatedly harps on the theme of Slovenia’s rock-hard resolve, using sentences like:

* "Slovenia’s
enthusiasm for adopting the euro remains undimmed."
* "Slovenia’s support for the euro seems the most ardent."
* "It remains so despite the problems over the constitution and doubts
being expressed over the currency by both Italy and Germany."
* "In Slovenia, support for the euro and the European Union appears as strong as ever."

What
caught my eye is that supporting numbers don’t appear until deep in
the story. He just talks about how the "EU flag flutters proudly… on
all government and municipal buildings in the capital, Ljubljana."
(What exactly does this demonstrate? That Slovenia is
an EU member? And what does "proudly" mean? Can flags ever flutter "ashamedly"?) When
the supporting numbers finally do come out, they come from the mouth of
Božo JaÅ¡oviÄ? of
the Bank of Slovenia. (Raise the red flag of suspicion!) Mr. JaÅ¡oviÄ? is quoted as saying: "Thirty-eight percent of Slovenes want immediate
adoption of the euro
and 66% are personally happy to see the euro replace the tolar." To
which he adds: "Slovenia ranks first among all EU states in answer to
these questions."

This seems like a lot of enthusiasm, but unfortunately it’s no longer accurate, if it ever was. In a poll conducted just one day after The Sunday Herald story appeared, a solid majority of Slovenes said they had deep suspicions about the euro. Fifty-nine percent
of respondents believed that the euro would have "more negative
consequences than positives ones." Only 23% were convinced of the
benefits, and 18% were unsure what would happen. So much for undimmed,
ardent enthusiasm that’s as strong as ever…

To be sure, Slovenia once heartily supported the euro. This story from 2003, published in the government-run Slovenia News,
talks about Slovenia being the "most ardent advocate of the euro." And
to be fair to The Sunday Herald, the latest poll was released after the story
had already been published. It’s their bad fortune that their analysis turned out
to be completely off-mark.

Also interesting: it seems that Mr. JaÅ¡oviÄ?
wasn’t the only Slovenian official coming up with humdingers. At one
point the former foreign minister, Ivo Vajgl, tells him that Slovenia
was the first country to ratify the
EU constitution. Mr. Fraser lets this slip into his story despite the fact
that
it’s plainly false:
Lithuania was the first in Nov. 2004, followed by Hungary in December.
Slovenia’s parliament only gave it the thumbs up the following year, in
February. It’s impossible that Mr. Vajgl wouldn’t know this. Either
there was a misunderstanding, or he just figured "What the hell, let’s see what I can get away with."

Either way, it all made for an interesting story.