The majority of Danish voters are wary about Turkey joining the European Union

Copenhagen Post:

Most Danes are opposed to Turkey joining the EU, according to a study conducted by Rambøll Management for daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

According to the poll, 55 percent of Danes are opposed to Turkey joining the EU.

The results came as Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, joined NATO allies for a parliamentary gathering in Denmark on Monday.

Among voters in parties to the right - the Conservative, Liberal, and Danish People's Parties - support is even more limited: 69 percent said they were opposed to Turkish membership.

Age and income were also two factors that were connected to whether one supported Turkish membership. The study found the older one is and the higher one's income is, the less likely one is to support Turkish membership.

Social Democrats were also opposed to Turkey joining the EU, with 54 percent of Social Democrats polled giving a thumbs-down.

The Danish People's Party's MP and spokesman on EU issues, Morten Messerschmidt, said he was overjoyed about the results.

'It's wonderful that a majority of the population can see that Turkey doesn't belong in the European Union,' he said, adding that the Turkish government's reaction to Jyllands-Posten's decision to print a series of caricatures of Muslim prophet Mohammed seemed to have convinced many voters that Turkey did not belong in the EU.

Ambassadors of Turkey and ten other Muslim countries criticised the newspaper for running the cartoons, which they said were considered blasphemous to Muslims, and requested a meeting with Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen to discuss the drawings.

Rasmussen declined the request, saying he had no say about what Danish newspapers chose to print.

'The case about the letter sent to protest the Mohammed cartoons in Jyllands-Posten, which Turkey signed, showed Turkey's fierce opposition against freedom of expression. It has contributed to raising people's awareness of what sort of a country Turkey is,' Messerschmidt said.

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TURKEY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: A LETHAL FAIT ACCOMPLI