Most Germans 'in favour of Portugal aid': poll

(BERLIN) - A narrow majority of Germans is in favour of the EU's multi-billion-euro bailout package for crisis-hit Portugal, a poll suggested Sunday, with 90 percent believing it would not be the last.

The Emnid poll for the Bild am Sonntag weekly showed 50 percent agreed with the European Union's decision to bail out debt-wracked Portugal to the tune of around 80 billion euros ($115 billion).

According to the survey, 45 percent believed it was the wrong decision.

However, nine out of 10 of those polled thought that Portugal would not be the last eurozone country to fall, as speculation mounts that Spain could be the next country to need a bailout from Brussels.

Portugal last week became the third eurozone country to go cap-in-hand to European authorities after Ireland and Greece.

The latter bailout in particular was extremely unpopular in Germany, which, as the continent's top economy, pays the most into the bailout pot.

Polls at the time showed Germans were strongly opposed to helping out the Greeks and a media campaign in the tabloids aroused diplomatic tensions between Berlin and Athens.

Bild, the mass-circulation daily, carried the front-page headline: "Why should we pay for Greeks' luxury pensions?"