The Euro is just self-evidently a good thing! (Even if 6 out of 10 people say otherwise)

Apparently desperate to join a sinking ship, the Latvian political elite are determined to join the Euro. Unsurprisingly, the political elite think very differently on the matter than do ordinary citizens:

While getting the euro is the obsession of Latvia's policy-making elite, the public appears sceptical -- on the surface at least.

An August survey of more than 1,000 Latvians by the Latvijas Fakti pollster showed that just 35 percent supported adopting the euro, with 59 percent declaring themselves against and six percent undecided.

Happily, the Latvians, like the Irish, have a paternalistic political class who will ignore their protests and drag them into the doomed currency regardless:

University of Latvia expert Ivars Ijabs says the question of euro adoption is seen less as an issue of economics than of reinforcing a European identity and national security -- further anchoring the former Soviet-ruled nation of two million in the European Union, which it joined in 2004.

"According to opinion polls we are rather euro-sceptic, but there has been no call for a referendum (on adopting the euro) and even if there was, there would be a large campaign stressing security issues," Ijabs told AFP.

"Probably Latvia will enter the eurozone as it entered the European Union -- without much debate as it is more or less self-evident that Latvia has to be there."

That is the typical eurocrat response to arguments against their project. Who needs counter-arguments? The EU is just self-evidently a glorious thing, can’t you see that? The europhile position is so self-evidently right, in fact, that a full 35% of the population agrees with it!