STOCKHOLM (Sputnik) – According to the poll conducted by the Society, Opinion, Media Institute, last year, the share of the Swedish public in favor of acceding to the alliance increased from 31 percent to 38 percent while opposition to NATO fell from 37 percent in 2014 to 31 percent during the same period.
The SOM Institute has been studying the attitudes of Swedes to NATO accession since 1994 when only 15 percent of respondents supported their country joining the military alliance. This figure remained stable until 2012 when the number of NATO adherents began to grow.
The researchers advised, however, that the results of the poll should be considered in the context of the Swedish public's attitude toward the country's neutrality. In 2015, for the first time in 12 years, Swedes were asked about their attitude to the country’s non-alignment policy. Sixty percent of respondents supported Sweden's neutral status – within the range recorded in the period 1994 – 2003 when the share of non-alignment proponents fell between 62 and 70 percent.
