LJUBLJANA: MOST SLOVENES OPPOSE ACCESSION TO NATO

LJUBLJANA, April 3 (Hina) - Public support in Slovenia for the country's accession to the European Union and NATO is still relatively low and brings into question the success of a referendum at which voters should express their wish to enter the two associations. These are the latest results of a poll called Politbarometar, conducted each month by the Centre for the Research of Public Opinion and Public Communications of the Ljubljana Faculty of Social Sciences. #L# A possible referendum on the country's membership in NATO would see a turnout of 75 percent of the electorate. Thirty-eight percent of voters would opt for accession and 41.3 percent would be against. The remainder would be undecided or would not vote at all, the survey results indicate. Support for accession to the European Union has increased insignificantly compared to the previous month and so 44.2 percent would vote for entry to the EU and 36 percent would vote against. The remainder were undecided or said that they would boycott the referendum. Slovene President Milan Kucan and Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek recently stated that Slovenes would go to the polls regarding the question of accession to the EU and NATO, however, formal processes to conduct the referendum have still not been initiated. (hina) sb sp