If ever there was a vote that could have been blown off course by a chance event, it was Sweden's referendum on joining the euro. Just three days before the poll, Anna Lindh, the country's popular and charismatic foreign minister, was stabbed to death in a Stockholm department store. Since she had also been the euro-campaigners' standard-bearer, many expected a late surge of sympathy in favour of a yes. After the murder, for the first time in months, a couple of opinion polls showed the yes camp ahead or level. But the Swedes were not to be emotionally swayed. On September 14th, they voted decisively against joining: 56% said no; 42%, yes. Along with Britain and Denmark, Sweden will continue to stand aside from the European Union's 12 other countries that have abandoned their old currencies. It has often been argued in Brussels that the Swedes' aversion to the euro has been driven mainly by a general hostility to the EU, by an unfocused sense that their welfare state is threatened by the EU, and by a broad resistance to change, especially among older people. The evidence, however, suggests other reasons.
展开▼
