Finns, Swedes overwhelmingly back NATO, poll shows
A new Gallup poll released Friday confirms overwhelming support among Finns and Swedes for their nations’ expected accession to NATO, while their views of Russian leadership have turned “deeply negative” as the war in Ukraine rages on.
The survey found that 81% of Finns and 74% of Swedes approve of the alliance’s leadership, while their approval of Russian leadership fell to a paltry 6% in Finland and 2% in Sweden.
In releasing the poll, Gallup noted that both countries had been warned by Russia about continuing membership in the alliance. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said there would be serious consequences if its two Nordic neighbors took that step.
Those threats turned out to be largely empty, observers have noted. But Moscow has long warned against NATO expansion, citing Ukraine’s NATO ambitions as one of the reasons for launching an invasion of that country.
The latest Gallup report also contained figures on support for US leadership among Finns and Swedes. It showed that 62% of Finns and 40% of Swedes approve of US leadership.
These numbers reflect an increase in positive sentiment toward the US in Finland from a year ago, but a decrease in such sentiment in Sweden. In 2021, approval of US leadership among Finns, according to a Gallup poll, was 52%, 10 percentage points lower than this year.
In Sweden, however, approval of US leadership has fallen from 52% in 2021 to the current 40%. Gallup did not suggest a reason for the decline.
RJ Reinhart, a US-based Gallup analyst and author of the report, said in a telephone interview with VOA that Scandinavian countries’ approval of US leadership has often fluctuated.
He noted both in the report and in the interview with VOA that the outcome of the war in Ukraine is likely to influence opinions in Finland and Sweden about NATO’s leadership, while noting that the timeline, trajectory and outcome of the war are difficult to determine.
What is clear is the finding that Finns’ view of Russian leadership is “almost universally negative”, with only 6% of Finns expressing support for Russian leadership and 92% disagreeing.
The report noted that Finns’ disapproval of Russia’s leadership fell to a similar low in 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea.
In Sweden, Russia’s leadership has not enjoyed more than 9% approval as long as Gallup has been asking the question, the report says. Current approval stands at just 2%, with 96% disapproving.
“It is likely that both countries are largely favorable to NATO because they see membership as a potential security guarantor against potential threats from Russia,” the report’s authors wrote.
Finland and Sweden simultaneously submitted their applications for NATO membership on May 18, just months after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. The applications followed “thorough debates throughout their communities and with large parliamentary majorities supporting the decision,” NATO noted.
The two countries were invited to attend the NATO summit in Madrid held the following month in the Spanish capital. The Protocol of Accession was signed on 5 July after the accession negotiations had been completed. These protocols must be ratified by each member of NATO before the two countries can become official members.
The parliaments of Greece and Spain ratified the membership bids on Thursday and Portugal’s parliament followed on Friday, leaving just three NATO members still to give their approval. These three are Hungary, Slovakia and Turkey.