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POLL: Majority of Finns want to join Nato before Sweden

A majority of Finns want to go it alone and join Nato without Sweden, if the latter country's membership is delayed, a poll suggested on Thursday, after Turkey said it could accept Finland without Sweden.

POLL: Majority of Finns want to join Nato before Sweden
The Nato and Swedish flags at Harpsund, the Swedish Prime Minister's country retreat. Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT

More than half of respondents, 53 percent, replied negatively when asked “whether Finland should wait for Sweden” even “if it takes longer to ratify Sweden’s accession, for example because of opposition from Turkey”.

Only 28 percent believed Finland should wait for Sweden and enter the US-led military alliance together.

The poll by Taloustutkimus, published by Finnish daily Ilta-Sanomat, surveyed 1,021 Finns between January 30th and February 1st.

Finland and Sweden dropped decades of military non-alignment and applied to join Nato in May last year in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

But Turkey has so far refused to ratify the two countries’ membership bids, primarily because of Sweden’s refusal to extradite dozens of suspects that Turkey links to outlawed Kurdish fighters and a failed 2016 coup attempt. 

Turkey has also reacted with fury to a decision by the Swedish police to allow a protest at which a far-right extremist burned a copy of the Koran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm earlier this month.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday drew a clear distinction between the positions taken by Sweden and Finland in the past few months.

“If necessary, we can give a different response concerning Finland. Sweden will be shocked when we give a different response for Finland,” Erdogan said.

The Finnish government has so far stressed that its priority is still to join the alliance together with its Nordic neighbour.

“Our strong desire in Finland has been, and still is, to join Nato together with Sweden,” Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto told reporters on Monday.

“Sweden is our closest ally in defence and foreign policy,” he said.

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NATO

Swedish PM to seek explanation from Hungary on Nato delay

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Thursday he would seek an explanation from Hungary about why it is delaying its parliament's ratification of Sweden's Nato bid but not Finland's.

Swedish PM to seek explanation from Hungary on Nato delay

“I’m going to ask why they are now separating Sweden from Finland. These are signals we have not received before, so I’m absolutely going to raise this with (Hungarian prime minister Viktor) Orbán today,” Kristersson told public broadcaster Sveriges Radio.

Orbán and Kristersson are both attending an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday.

Helsinki and Stockholm ended decades of military non-alignment last May when they decided to join the Atlantic alliance in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Their applications were accepted at a June Nato summit that signalled the Western world’s desire to stand up to Russia in the face of Europe’s gravest conflict since World War II.

But the bids need to be ratified by all 30 of the alliance members’ parliaments, which only Turkey and Hungary have yet to do.

Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party has said parliament will ratify Finland’s bid on March 27th, but “will decide on the case of Sweden later”.

On Thursday, Orbán’s chief-of-staff Gergely Gulyás told reporters there was “a serious chance” the Swedish bid would be ratified during the ongoing parliamentary session which runs until June 15.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has meanwhile also asked parliament to quickly ratify Finland’s bid, but has held up Sweden’s following a litany of disputes.

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