The 2013 Cypriot banking crisis and blame attribution: survey evidence from the first application of a bail-in in the Eurozone

The policy responses to the Eurozone crisis were mainly driven by taxpayer funded bailouts and austerity packages, with the exception of Cyprus where a bail-out was supplemented with a bank bail-in for the first time in the Eurozone. This paper examines how voters assign blame for the 2013 Cypriot banking crisis. The results of an original public opinion survey that was conducted in Cyprus show that neither the incumbent government at the time of the bail-in nor the previous one are assigned primary responsibility. Instead, blame is dispersed towards two non-elected actors; the national central bank and the banking sector. The findings carry implications for democratic accountability at the domestic and European Union level.