Majority of Finns want to join Nato before Sweden: poll

HELSINKI: A majority of Finns want to go ahead and join Nato even if Sweden´s membership is delayed, a poll suggested on Thursday, after Turkiye said it could accept Finland without Sweden.

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 Turkiye”.

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 30 and February 1. 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.