In Finland, EU critic is gaining a following - by Dan Bilefski
Timo Soini, Finland's most outspoken EU skeptic, recently considered protesting plans by the government to ratify the European Union's moribund constitution by drop-kicking it down the stairs of Parliament or immersing the 300-page document in a pile of fish. In the end he decided against any such display, on the grounds that it would be too "un- Finnish."
"The days when Finns thought the EU could do no wrong are over," said Alexander Stubb, a member of the European Parliament and one of Finland's most ardent EU proponents.
A recent poll by Eva, a research institute here, found that the percentage of Finns favoring the EU fell to 33 percent in January 2005, a drop of 11 percentage points from the previous January. Two- thirds of the respondents said the costs of the EU outweighed its benefits.
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