Germans less nostalgic about deutschmark: poll

(FRANKFURT) - Germans are less nostalgic about the deutschmark, and fewer want to give up the euro, according to the results of poll published in the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Wednesday.

The figures are seen as an indirect comment on the status of the euro now that the eurozone debt crisis has abated.

Only 35 percent of those polled said they wished a return to the old national currency, an annual poll by the Allensbach Institute found.

The poll was conducted between July 1-11 and quizzed 1,583 people.

That is the lowest reading since the poll was launched 11 years ago.

In 2004, as many as 59 percent of Germans said they wanted to return to the deutschmark. Last year, 42 percent were in favour.

Following the long years of crisis, Germans' confidence in the single currency appears to be returning slowly.

In 2009, 44 percent of Germans had said they had "great confidence" in the euro, a proportion that shrank to just 17 percent in 2011. This year, the number rose again to 28 percent.

The newspaper said the poll's results were consistent with the poor showing of the anti-euro party AfD in the opinion polls where it failed to reach the 5.0-percent barrier needed to be represented in parliament.