Germans in ‘teuro’ day of protest

Published on Monday 1 July 2002 01:00

GERMANS are gearing up for a euro-strike day today to register popular disgust at the widely despised currency.

What began as a chain e-mail rant at price hikes blamed on the new money has morphed into a grassroots resistance movement that looks like having some impact. The consumer strike calls for a boycott of shops, stores, restaurants, hair salons, garages and all other outlets for a 12-hour period.

It is being taken seriously by retailing groups who fear a considerable dip in sales.

The anonymous e-mail has been circulating in Germany for several weeks and was spawned over popular hatred of the "teuro" - the new nickname for the euro coming from the German word teuer, meaning expensive.

But it has struck a chord with shoppers, thousands of whom have pledged to stay at home today in their small revolt against a currency which has pushed prices sky high.

The German government is so concerned about rising costs that last month it staged a one-day seminar in Berlin with representatives of various trade groups in a bid to see how to lower prices.

While such a boycott can only be symbolic - retailers point out that people will have to go shopping again and probably buy twice as much to stock up on what they missed out on - it is yet more embarrassment for the government of Gerhard Schrder, which is battling against poor opinion polls in an election countdown.

"This will really hit the small trader when it is the bigger supermarkets and chain stores that have ramped up prices," said Nils Busch-Petersen of the Berlin Retailer’s Association. "We understand people’s anxieties about the euro and prices but I don’t know who this will harm the most."

In a recent poll 54 per cent of Germans said they wished they had the mark back in their pockets and purses. The federal statistics office said that some 10,000 items have risen in price from a few per cent to 1,000 per-cent since 1 January.

Carola and Karsten Haensel in Berlin are two consumers motivated to join the strike. They said: "We are disgusted at what the euro has done to prices and what our government hasn’t done to regulate the situation ... We are all being ripped off. This is just one way of showing that we disapprove of the euro."

No-one is clear where the e-mail originated from but it has been sent to an estimated one million internet users in Germany. It reads in part:

"Dear All: You barely needed to be reminded but here’s what we’re all saying and feeling: prices in Germany have increased by between 8-100 per cent. Bars and restaurants are ridiculous. Remember the DM 3.50 beer? Long gone, my friends. When did you last get a beer for 1.75?

"Let’s get continental about this. Let’s strike! Monday 1 July is teuro day. People are being urged to buy nothing on that day.

"Even a tiny drop in expenditure by half a million people would send a powerful message. Overcharging shop owners will think twice when they see deserted stores. We’re being massively exploited and if we don’t do anything, prices will stay the same. If we don't take part, we’ve no right to complain about euro prices ever again."

The government says it disapproves of a consumer boycott and hopes "common sense" will prevail.