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Swedes would vote against Europe

James Savage
James Savage - [email protected]
Swedes would vote against Europe

Sweden remains a Eurosceptic country, with opposition to joining the euro hardening and support for staying in the EU overall still a minority view.

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A new survey from Statistics Sweden (SCB) shows that only one in three Swedes would have voted to join the European single currency if there had been a referendum in November.

A majority (51.5 Percent) of the 7,012 people who responded to the survey said they would have voted against joining the euro. Only 34.7 percent would have voted in favour, giving opponents a lead of around 17 percentage points.

The result indicates a strengthening of opposition to the euro since the spring, when the No side had a lead of 11 percentage points.

Support for Sweden remaining a member of the EU increased over the same period, although still less than half of those asked said they were in favour of membership. Around 44 percent of respondents told SCB in November that they wanted Sweden to stay in the club. In May, only 33 percent were in favour.

Some 29 percent of respondents said they were against Sweden staying in the EU and 24 percent said they did not know.

Men were more favourable than women both to EU membership and to membership of the euro. Around 52 percent of men favoured staying in the EU, while only 40 percent of women wanted to stay in. Only 28 percent of women wanted to join the euro, against 41 percent of men.

Views were also sharply divided along party lines. Those who described themselves as Moderate Party sympathisers were most likely to be in favour of both EU and euro membership, with just under 60 percent in favour. A majority of Liberal Party voters were also pro-EU and pro-euro.

Fewer than half the supporters of all the other parties wanted to join the euro or remain in the EU. Left Party supporters were most sceptical, with sympatisers of the other parties in the left-wing opposition also broadly opposed to European involvement.

Respondents were asked: "Are you mainly for or against Swedish membership in the EU, or do you not have a decided opinion?"

On the euro, respondents were asked: "If a referendum were held on replacing the krona as a currency would you vote yes or no to introducing the euro as Sweden's currency?"

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