Posted on 09/13/2003 1:21:02 AM PDT by ambrose
Swedish Euro 'Yes' Leads After Murder
Sat September 13, 2003 04:05 AM ET
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Support for a Swedish "Yes" to the euro overtook the "No" side in a poll for the first time since April after the murder of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, but another survey Saturday showed a continued "No" lead.
A Gallup poll, taken after Lindh died of stab wounds on Thursday, indicated that backing for the European Union's single currency had jumped to lead opposition by 43-42 percent, on an apparent wave of sympathy for the fervent pro-euro campaigner.
Fifteen percent were undecided ahead of Sunday's vote on whether to abandon the crown for the euro.
The survey, taken among 1,033 people and published by the daily Expressen and TV4, compared with a Gallup poll earlier in the week in which the "Yes" side had trailed the "No" side by 35-50 percent with about 16 percent undecided.
"Anna Lindh's death is affecting the referendum," Expressen said.
But a Temo opinion poll, also conducted after Lindh's death, for the Dagens Nyheter daily, showed the "No" camp carrying 46 percent of the vote against 40 percent for the "Yes" campaign.
The six percentage point lead was unchanged from a poll a day before when euro opponents led by 48-42 percent.
The bloc of undecided voters grew to 14 percent from 10 percent with Dagens Nyheter saying uncertainty had increased, especially among women and voters of the ruling Social Democratic party, after Lindh's murder.
There is a difference: Leftists built up a whole atmosphere of hatred for Fortuyn, which led to his assassination; the Lindh stabbing appears to be the work of a deranged loner.
Pim Fortuyn was completely different...blamed Muslims for ills of crime and terror, planned to end all immigration to Holland and expel radical Muslims. Supportive of our war on terror.
Lindh was a communist...Jew-hater, Islamophile, called Bush the "Lone Ranger", nasty, almost like a Canadian about U.S. foreign policy.
No tears shed here for Ms Lindh. Many shed for Pim.
This is all that matters. People who are undecided right up until the point they enter the voting booth tend to break roughly even. So "no" will prevail.
It is sad though that so many people are so stupid, so led by pure emotions, that some woman's stabbing would cause them to change their vote on an issue of such major importance.
Of course, in America we call those people "Democrats."
Of course there should be a full investigation. And there very well could be a conspiracy behind the attack. But her political opponents never created the kind of political climate tha Fortuyn faced.
Swedish Euro Vote Wide Open After Lindh Murder (and related stories)
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