Poll: Support for NATO membership lowest since Iraq war

Even supporters of National Coalition Party turn against joining alliance

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Support for membership in the NATO military alliance has fallen sharply in the past year and a half. According to a poll commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat and conducted by TNS Gallup, more than two thirds of Finns (68 per cent) are against joining the alliance.
      The last time in the new century that support for joining NATO has been this low was in 2003 - when the United States went to war with Iraq.
      Attitudes have changed especially among supporters of the National Coalition Party, who have traditionally been the most pro-NATO of all; now 54 per cent of supporters of the National Coalition Party are against joining NATO.
     
Green league party secretary Panu Laturi feels that the result is significant.
      “The results show clearly that appreciation for military non-alignment has grown in Finland. People see that with the somewhat uncertain situation that prevails in Russia, joining the alliance would not improve the situation in Finland.”
     
Pro-NATO columnist Olli Kivinen says that the result is an indication that the NATO issue is not a high priority for the Finnish people at the moment.
      “Political parties have been giving assurances constantly that we have no reason to worry, and that we have a credible defence. The presidential elections also affect the opinion climate, which has always been NATO-sceptical”, Kivinen observes.
      “People think that we are living in our own idyll, and the rest of the world can do what it likes.”
     
In the view of Teija Tiilikainen, director of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, and the editor-in-chief of the institute’s publication Ulkopolitiikka, one reason for the figures is that the period in which the survey was taken was fairly quiet on the foreign policy front.
      “No party has an active NATO campaign. The theme has also been downplayed in the presidential elections.”
      One factor keeping the NATO issue as a low priority in presidential election debates has been that none of the candidates have made a point of supporting NATO membership.
     
The unpopularity of the idea of joining NATO has not escaped the attention of the National Coalition Party, and consequently, the party has kept a low profile over the issue.
      This silence may have cut the enthusiasm of the most ardently pro-NATO members of the party.
     
Tiilikainen says that views on NATO are also affected by how the alliance has been portrayed in the media.
      In recent years the images of NATO have involved Afghanistan, where Estonia, Finland’s neighbour, has been involved in some tight situations.
      Panu Laturi examines the matter from a different angle: “For many Finns it is unclear what NATO actually is, and where it is going. NATO’s role in the Cold War is recognised, but its new role has not taken shape”, Laturi says.
     
In the view of Jyrki Iivonen, head of communications at the Ministry of Defence, the war in Iraq had a clear impact on views concerning NATO.
      Iivonen says that the anti-NATO attitudes can be a reflection of the financial crisis in the eurozone, as well as a critical view of international military cooperation. “Peacekeeping has not been very popular in recent years”, Iivonen says.

More on this subject:
 COMMENTARY: NATO – the Voldemort of Finnish politics

Previously in HS International Edition:
  Prime Minister Katainen reacts to Defence Minister Wallin’s comments on NATO (11.8.2011)
  Finland will not move toward NATO membership in current Parliamentary term (17.6.2011)
  Presidential race: Haavisto rejects Arhinmäki innuendo over NATO stance (28.11.2011)

Helsingin Sanomat