Poll: anti-NATO majority shrinks

National Coalition Party supporters hold strongest pro-NATO stance

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Finns are relying less on their own reasoning on the benefits and disadvantages of joining NATO, compared with those offered by political decision-makers.
      A poll commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat and conducted by Suomen Gallup also shows that the relevance of the European Union in the NATO issue has declined in the view of most Finns.
     
Finns are taking a more positive view of possible NATO membership than at any time in the seven years that Helsingin Sanomat has been conducting surveys on the issue.
     More than half of respondents still oppose membership, but the percentage of opponents is smaller than ever before.
     Support for joining NATO is 27 per cent, which is at about the same level as two years ago.
     The gap between support for and opposition to NATO membership is just 26 percentage points. Six years ago the gap between the pro and anti-NATO camps was more than 50 percentage points.
     
When asked what arguments might be the most persuasive in making people support NATO membership, 68 per cent saw increasing Finnish influence over matters related to the country’s own security as a convincing argument. The same percentage might lean toward NATO membership if Finland, as a NATO member, could decide itself which conflicts taking place outside its border it would participate in.
      A possible threat form Russia was seen as a good potential pro-NATO argument by 58 per cent, improving relations with the United States was seen as a valid argument by just 27 per cent, and Sweden’s possible NATO membership was seen as relevant by just 18 per cent.
     
The margin of error in the poll is three percentage points in either direction.
      Juhani Pehkonen of Suomen Gallup nevertheless sees an increase in positive attitudes toward NATO. The number of supporters has increased, especially among upper-level white collar workers and pensioners.
      It is interesting that both men and women are among converts to the NATO cause, although men still outnumber women among NATO supporters by a margin of 32 per cent to 22.
      The National Coalition Party has taken the strongest pro-NATO stance in public, and the poll shows that a majority of supporters of the party, 53 per cent, are in favour of joining the alliance.
     
In other parties, opponents of membership hold the majority.
      Only one in four supporters of the largest opposition party, the Social Democrats, are in favour of joining NATO. However, even among the SDP, pro-NATO sentiment has increased since the September survey, when only a month had passed since the crisis in Georgia.
      Anti-NATO feelings remain high within the Centre Party, as only one in five of the party’s supporters want Finland to join the alliance.

More on this subject:
 COMMENTARY: Scare tactics do not work

Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finns increasingly unsure about NATO membership (18.9.2008)

Helsingin Sanomat