Turkey's opposition to Sweden's Nato membership has raised the question of whether Finland should join the alliance before its western neighbour, even though they applied together last year.
The majority of the parliamentary parties who responded to an Yle survey said that Finland could join before Sweden if necessary. This view was supported by the two main opposition parties, the National Coalition and the Finns Party, as well as the Centre and two small opposition parties, the Christian Democrats and Movement Now.
The Left Alliance was the only party in the survey that clearly said it was against joining without Sweden. Last year, the Left was the most sceptical of the government parties regarding Finland's Nato application.
Two other government parties, the Greens and the Swedish People’s Party, declined to take a stand on the question while SDP refused to answer.
Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s SDP did not agree to answer the question. Marin said that Finland and Sweden are part of the same security environment, and that the countries' defence planning is strongly connected as part of Nato.
“We expect the missing ratifications to take place for both countries before the Nato Summit in Vilnius,” said Marin, referring to a mid-July conference in Lithuania.
Joint accession remains unanimous goal
However, according to all parties, the primary goal is still for Finland and Sweden to join together and as soon as possible.
The parties provided their responses between 2 and 16 February.
Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto (Green) said on Saturday that according to Turkey, Finland has fulfilled the conditions it has set for Nato membership, but that Ankara must still negotiate with Sweden. Turkey has previously hinted at the possibility of processing Finland's and Sweden's Nato applications at different times.
The Finnish Parliament intends to complete the approval of the Nato agreements before the April elections, so that the process will proceed as quickly as possible after Turkey and Hungary ratify the application.
However, it remains unclear whether Finland will advance to join Nato as soon as its ratifications are complete, or whether it will wait for Sweden. They are the only two non-Nato countries in the Nordic region.