Today, on March 27 the results of the consequent public opinion poll conducted by public opinion research company Faktum were introduced.
The aim of the poll conducted at the beginning of February was to define the public opinion concerning many important issues connected with national defence e g support to Estonia’s joining NATO, the level of being informed on defence policy issues, the opinion about defence spending, the level of citizens’ defence will, the public opinion concerning the security guarantees and the reliability of public institutions ( Defence Forces and Defence League included).
Public support concerning NATO has grown after getting the official invitation last year. 63% of the respondents support or rather support this step. Only 28% of the respondents are against or rather against it.
Among the citizens of Estonia the percentage of supporters has grown up to 67: 73% of Estonians and 39% of non-Estonians are supporting NATO integration.
The real success of Estonia in the integration process with NATO has essentially increased public’s self-estimation as to the level of being informed. Half of the respondents estimate their level of information very good or rather good. Compared to last October 17% of those questioned feel they are better informed.
Two of the most essential guarantees of Estonia’s security are considered to be
a) joining NATO (46%)
b) co-operation and good relations with Russia (43%).
Equally important factors are :creation of close economical bonds with different countries in the world (35%); belonging to the European Union (35%); and the defence co-operation between the Baltic states (33%).
The Estonian Defence Forces belong to one of the most trustworthy public institutions positioning on the third place after the Border Guard and the President. The position of the Defence League stays relatively high as last October.
The public opinion concerning defence spending has not changed – one third of the respondents are for raising the defence spending, 45% are for holding it on the same level and 15% of the respondents would rather cut the spending.
The majority of respondents do not consider the possibility of a military aggression towards Estonia probable, only 13% consider it as a possibility. However, the situation in the world is considered to be rather explosion-risky – half of the respondents think that te risk of a military conflict in the world is likely to occur in a few years to come.
69% of those engaged in the opinion poll think that resistance against possible enemy is important. This necessity is equally pointed out by the Estonians as well as non-Estonians not depending on the latter’s citizenship. 70% of the respondents would participate in the defence activities and there is no difference as to the Estonians or non-Estonians, the correspondent numbers being 73% and 71%. The correspondent number among non-citizens is 63%.
The majority of the respondents (60%) are for the compulsory conscript service, 29% would rather see Estonia compiling the professional army.
Half of the respondents are in support of Estonia’s participation in peace missions.
The approach towards starting military action against Iraq is on the contrary, negative. Only 11% are in support of the military attack, whereas 4/5 are against.