Brexit Boosts Swedish Support for EU Membership, SVT Poll Finds
Brexit Boosts Swedish Support for EU Membership, SVT Poll Finds
(Bloomberg) -- Extensive reporting on the potentially negative impact of Brexit has boosted support for European Union membership in Sweden.
As EU leaders head to Brussels for another round of discussions on the terms of the U.K.’s departure from the bloc, a Kantar Sifo poll found that 77 percent of Swedes now think EU membership is a “good” thing, compared with 7 percent who say it’s bad and 16 percent of undecided. The poll was carried out in September on behalf of the EU parliament and published by Swedish broadcaster SVT.
Wednesday’s numbers suggest a rise in support for EU membership from the spring, when a Kantar Sifo poll placed that level at 68 percent. Opposition to being in the EU is strongest among supporters of the nationalist Sweden Democrats, who surged in last month’s general election after campaigning against immigration and for a so-called “Swexit.”
There have been “a lot of reports” about Brexit and its “negative effects” on the U.K., “so that’s probably an important factor,” Toivo Sjoren, an expert at Kantar Sifo, told SVT.
Swedish support for the EU is above average, with only citizens in Luxembourg, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands having a more positive view of the EU, according to the latest surveys.
To contact the reporter on this story: Rafaela Lindeberg in Stockholm at rlindeberg@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jonas Bergman at jbergman@bloomberg.net, Nick Rigillo
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