Nearly half of Swedes, Danes reject EU, prefer their own club

The survey conducted by pollster Sentio for Norwegian newspaper Klassekampen revealed that 47 percent in Sweden and 45 percent in Denmark said they’d rather be in a union with their neighbors from Norway, Finland and Iceland than in the EU.

The polls also showed that 32 percent of Swedes and 36 percent of Danes were happy to remain in the European Union.

This is while in Norway—a non-EU member— only 10 percent said it would be a good idea for the kingdom to join the European Union.

The poll surveyed around 1,000 people in each of the three countries, asking them to explain the reasons behind their low level of trust in the EU.
The poll, however, did not ask the respondents about the reasons behind their low level of trust in the EU.

A map revealed the most anti-EU countries in the continent last year. A majority of people in the three southern member states of Italy, Greece and Cyprus do not believe they have benefited from being part of the bloc.

In Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and even France, those who feel positively about the EU, even fell below 60 percent, according to the map.

The anti-EU trend is ringing alarm bells for the bloc in the wake of next year’s European Parliament elections.

According to another survey, conducted by Reuters of national opinion polls, far-right eurosceptic parties could expand their strength in the parliament by 60 percent in the upcoming election.

This is happening only two years after the United Kingdom voted in a referendum, known as the Brexit, to leave the European Union.

Analysts believe that the root cause of the rise in ant-EU sentiments was economic distress created by a recession in 2008 and 2009.
All EU counties, however, recovered from the recession and are experiencing economic growth now. The bloc still faces several challenges, mainly the refugee crisis.