War may be driving Swedes towards voting to join eurozone

WAR in Iraq may be convincing Swedes that a united Europe is needed, a bank said yesterday, as it published the first poll for weeks showing advocates of joining the euro zone ahead of their opponents.

A monthly poll by Danske Bank showed support for switching to the euro in Sweden rose to 49% this month from 47% in February while opposition fell to 47% from 50%. Swedes will vote on whether to adopt the European Union’s common currency on September 14. The last time a poll showed the “Yes” camp in the lead was on January 31.

“The ‘Yes’ side’s progress in March may have been spurred by the United States’ decision to deal with Iraq almost on its own without the backing of the UN,” Danske Bank said in a statement accompanying the poll, which surveyed 1,500 people. “This may have caused some Swedes to view the euro as a means of creating a united Europe that could offset the US superiority. Prime Minister Goran Persson . . . voiced this argument recently.”

Persson said in a speech on Tuesday that Sweden should adopt the euro to help the EU offset the supremacy of the United States: “For everyone who is scared of living in a world where there is only one big actor, there is every reason to attach more weight and effort to strengthening the European Union.”

The Danske Bank poll supports the findings of a Temo polling institute survey on Saturday, which also showed a marginal increase in the number of Swedes supporting a change to the euro, but still gave the “No” camp a three-point lead.

Some economists were sceptical of the reasons for the bank’s poll findings.

“Perhaps this was just a blip because it is hard to see what happened in recent weeks that could have boosted the ‘Yes’ side,” said Peter Lagerlof, economist at brokerage Carnegie.