Sunday 3 June 2012

Strong support for Norwegian and British monarchies, less so for the Swedish

Earlier this week the King and Queen celebrated their 75th birthdays and an opinion poll conducted by InFact Norge AS for VG that day, and published in VG the following day, shows that 74.6 % of the 1,023 respondents support the monarchy.
This weekend and the coming days see the celebrations of the diamond jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II of Britain, an event which has also caused at least two opinion polls relating to the British monarchy.
An opinion poll by Ipsos MORI, reported in the Daily Telegraph, shows 80 % in favour of the monarchy, while 13 % want a republic. This is up 5 % from the same poll last year, which was undertaken shortly before the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
A poll done by IMC Research between 18 and 20 May and published in the Guardian on 25 May shows that 69 % of the 1,002 respondents think Britain would be worse off without the monarchy, while 22 % think it would be better off. The Guardian points out that the margin has not been greater on any of the twelve occasions IMC has asked that question over the past fifteen years. 9 % do not know.
The poll does not ask directly if respondents are in favour of a monarchy or a republic, but only 10 % say that Britain should become a republic and elect a head of state when Queen Elizabeth dies or abdicates. 39 % want the crown to pass to the Prince of Wales, 48 % say that it should pass to the Duke of Cambridge, while 3 % do not know.
At the end of April the SOM Institute at the University of Gothenburg’s annual survey of public attitudes to a multitude of questions was also published. Of the 4,720 respondents (interviewed over a period stretching from September to January), 56 % want Sweden to remain a monarchy, while 19 % opt for a republic. Interestingly, as many as 25 % claim to have no opinion about it.
As a comparison, the 2010 report from the SOM Institute found 60 % in favour of the monarchy, 19 % in favour of a republic and 21 % without an opinion. In the 2003 report 68 % supported the monarchy, 15 % opted for a republic and 17 % had no opinion.
The SOM Institute’s report also shows that the margin between those who have confidence in the royal family and those who do not is now only 4 %. In 2010 the margin was 21 %; in 1995, the first year this poll was conducted, it was 41 %.

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