Has Europe’s common currency been cheating death for too long?

The current political climate around the globe is leaning toward nationalism. Within this social construct of isolationism, its ideology does not lean in favor of the European communal currency, shared by 19 nations across the continent. Now, some of these interconnected nations have begun to revolt against the system.

Spurred on by failures in the eurozone and a concentration of power in Brussels, withdrawal from the common currency market has become the rallying cry for the likes of the Five Star Movement (M5S) in Italy — a populist, right-wing, anti-establishment party. Failed presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen, former head of the anti-EU National Front, ran on a campaign promise to remove France from the eurozone.

This monetary system was created in 1999 to enable a unified central bank and interest rates, but left the unforeseen issue of interdependency in which massive bailouts were required for countries whose economies couldn’t keep up. In the wake of the crippling global financial crisis, Greece and Spain have both seen staggering unemployment rates, reflecting a troubling future for their financial state. In 2016, the youth unemployment rate in Spain and Greece was north of 40%, inspiring references to another “Lost Generation.”

Germany, under the leadership of Angela Merkel, has invested heavily into keeping the euro feasible, with many European leaders pledging to pull together to keep the union project alive, but some business leaders, analysts and politicians argue that its fall may be inevitable.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.

Photo Credit: assalve