Sweden made too many sacrifices for NATO bid: Poll
An empty mast amongst member nation flags in the Cour d'Honneur of the NATO headquarters, ahead of a flag-raising ceremony for Sweden’s accession to NATO, in Brussels, Feb. 27, 2024. (AFP Photo)


A majority of the people in Sweden think their country made "too many sacrifices" to become a NATO member, according to a poll released Friday.

Sweden is on track to become the 32nd member of the military alliance within days, after last holdout Hungary ratified its bid on Monday.

Ending two centuries of military non-alignment, the Nordic country applied for NATO membership along with Finland in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

According to a poll conducted by analyst firm Indikator for Swedish broadcaster SR, 55% of Swedes believe that the Scandinavian country "has made too many sacrifices to join NATO."

Meanwhile, 77% believe that "Sweden's security is strengthened" by its membership.

The survey polled 2,413 people in February. But no questions were asked about the type of sacrifices people took issue with.

The results show that Swedes see "the NATO process for the complicated issue it has been," Per Oleskog Tryggvason, head of research at Indikator, told AFP.

"The opinion that Sweden's security is strengthened by NATO membership, for that there is an overwhelming consensus. But you can see that the road there has not been straightforward," Oleskog Tryggvason said.

Sweden's bid primarily faced opposition from Türkiye, which accused the Nordic country of providing a safe haven for dozens of suspects linked to a failed 2016 coup attempt and PKK terrorists.

Sweden agreed with Türkiye in 2022, committing to consider its extradition requests and to lift an arms embargo dating to Türkiye's 2019 counterterrorism operation in Syria.

It also amended its constitution to beef up anti-terror legislation.