Admin I Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024
BERLIN – The German Economic Institute (IW) has warned of the economic damage of leaving the European Union, as recently suggested by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), would have on the country’s economy.
If Germany were to leave the EU and the eurozone, “it could lose around 10% of its economic output,” the head of the IW’s Berlin office, Knut Bergmann, told the Rheinische Post newspaper, in remarks published on Tuesday.
“This would mean a loss of prosperity of €400 billion [$430 billion] to €500 billion per year, as a study on the actual consequences of Brexit shows,” Bergmann said.
As an exporting country, Germany would be hit hard by such a decision – “and so would its citizens: 2.2 million jobs would be at risk,” he said.
AfD co-chairwoman Alice Weidel recently argued in an interview with the Financial Times that the far-right party should pursue a referendum on quitting the EU modeled on the United Kingdom’s 2016 Brexit vote if it can’t succeed in forcing sweeping reforms on the EU to diminish the power of Brussels.