Pessimism pervades the Germans

More than half considered daunting situation of the economy, but maintains the support to the Conservative Merkel.He convinces his hard stance in the eurozone

The Forsa Institute poll published in the Magazine Stern also showed that the junior partner in the governing coalition, the free Democrats Party, which said that Greece should leave the euro-, has a support higher than the 5% required to enter Parliament.

57% Of respondents had a pessimistic economic Germany perspective and only 12 per cent was optimistic, a brecha 45 percentage points, which is the widest since October 2008, when the global financial crisis erupted.

Germany, the largest economy in Europe, has borne the euro zone debt crisis relatively well so far. Exports to markets outside Europe have grown and unemployment played a minimum of 20 years, but a series of recent data have suggested a slowdown.

On Wednesday, the purchasing managers index (PMI) of Markit (a monthly survey of manufacturing industry) touched its lowest level since June 2009 since the companies received less orders and production declined.

But the Germans still believe that the Merkel conservatives are better prepared to lead the country through the crisis. The survey gave the Party of Chancellor 36% support, unchanged from the previous survey and 9 percentage points over the Social Democrats (center-left).

"People feel that she (Merkel) is facing problems and is defending the interests of Germany", said Manfred Guellner, head of the Forsa Institute.

In the survey, the Greens won 12% and the pro-market democratic free by 5%, one percentage point more than last week. This would be sufficient to return to Parliament in the federal election of next year.

Party free Democrats has hardened its stance in the crisis in the euro zone, and its leader Philipp Roesler asked recently to Greece - that still fails to meet its fiscal targets -leave the euro zonedespite two rescue programs.  

On the basis of these projections, however, Merkel could not form a new Government with the free Democrats and most likely is need to form a broader coalition with the Social Democrats as led between 2005 and 2009.

In the survey, made from 23 to 27 July between 2,501 people, 56% felt it Greece should leave the zone euro, while 35% said that it should remain in it.