Almost half of Slovakia's citizens (47.6 percent) think that the country should choose sovereignty over preserving its membership in the European Union. According to a survey conducted by the MVK agency in early January, 14.9 percent would support preserving Slovakia's sovereignty at any price – even if it meant leaving the EU – while 32.7 percent would be willing to take a risk regarding some questions of Slovakia’s EU membership rather than to give up sovereignty. MVK surveyed 1,145 respondents between January 5 and January 11.
More than one-third of respondents (37.6 percent) said that Slovakia should focus more on preserving its EU membership, the SITA newswire reported, citing the poll. Of those polled, 11.2 percent want to preserve the country’s membership of the EU at any price, even if Slovakia would have to give up its sovereignty, while 26.4 percent of those polled would be more willing to make concessions regarding sovereignty than to risk the country’s membership. Respondents were asked what Slovakia's attitude towards the European Union should be like; they could choose between a focus on keeping Slovakia in a unified Europe, or on preserving Slovakia's sovereignty.
The MVK said it asked respondents about Slovakia’s attitude to Europe as it wanted to learn about voters’ attitudes regarding the most serious problems on the table of the next government, given the shifts in the behaviour of the leading political parties, and in order to detect the compatibility of the electorate’s opinion with individual parties.
The biggest share of Europhiles were among the supporters of the governing Most-Híd party, of whom 56.3 percent said they would prefer to defend EU membership; the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) followed on 50.7 percent. Supporters of the other two governing parties instead preferred to defend Slovakia’s sovereignty: they represented 61.3 percent of Freedom and Solidarity’s (SaS) supporters; 55 percent of Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) sympathisers. 61.3 percent of Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽNO) followers took the same position.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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