(Stockholm) A majority of Swedes are in favor of their country joining NATO, according to a poll published on Thursday, as the ruling party prepares for a debate on whether to abandon the policy of military non-alignment pursued so far by Sweden.
Posted at 9:23 a.m.
A majority of 51% of Swedes are in favor of NATO membership, according to this survey by the Novus Institute, while they were 45% a week ago.
Recent polls by other institutes had also revealed that a majority of Swedes want their country to join the military alliance, a shift in public opinion caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But now public opinion is also being swayed by the ongoing NATO membership debate in neighboring Finland, where parliament began discussing the issue on Wednesday, the Novus Institute said.
The Finnish government presented last week to parliamentarians a “white paper” which stresses that only membership of NATO makes it possible to benefit from the “umbrella” of its article 5 of collective defence.
Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin visited her Swedish counterpart Magdalena Andersson last week and underlined on this occasion that the two countries, which are NATO partners while being officially non-aligned countries, are moving forward in unison. on the issue of membership.
If Finland joins the alliance, 64% of Swedes questioned by the Novus institute declare themselves in this case in favor of membership.
“The opinion in Sweden in favor of NATO is growing, because (the Swedes) think that it will be done together with Finland and in this case they are much more positive about Sweden joining”, declared the director of Novus Torbjorn Sjostrom.
Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said on Thursday she wanted to speed up the completion of the security report which is to guide MPs during their debate.
“Finland has already published its analysis and there is strong pressure for us to complete our analysis,” she said.
Last week, the Social Democrats in power in Sweden announced the opening of an internal debate on the possibility of joining NATO.
A reversal of the first Swedish party, until now historically opposed to joining NATO, would open the way to a Swedish candidacy.
According to the Aftonbladet newspaper, citing sources within the Social Democrats, a “marathon meeting” on NATO is scheduled for Friday, the party’s “first major discussion” on the subject.