Sweden has become a major world supplier of arms, but most Swedes are against having weapons exports at all, a new study has revealed. Just over half of Swedish people say no to weapon exports, a survey from pollster Ipsos revealed.
When the same question was posed by polling company Sifo in 2012, 39 percent said they were against weapons exports and 42 percent were for them. Only 33 percent of the 1,157 randomly selected respondents in the survey were positive towards arms exports.
Over the last few years Sweden has climbed the ranks of weapons exporters, becoming the world’s third-largest arms exporter per capita.
The issue may cause problems for cooperation between the Green Party (Miljöpartiet, MP) and the Social Democrats (Socialdemokraterna, S), should the opposition win the elections in September. The Green Party’s official stance is on par with that of the public majority, wanting to do away with weapons exports entirely.