Half are willing to cut welfare to invest in the Armed Forces

Norway should spend more money on defence, also if it were to go beyond welfare benefits and/or increase the tax burden, 50.7 per cent believe in the survey carried out by InFact for ABC News.

31.3 percent answered no, while 18 percent said they don’t know.

The survey was carried out before the government presented the announced major investment in the Armed Forces on Friday last week.

The results show that the will to defend is great, says election researcher and political scientist Svein Erik Tuastad at the University of Stavanger.

– It is interesting that there are big differences when it comes to age groups in terms of whether they want increased investment also when they are reminded that it can affect welfare. In fact, a majority of the youngest are no longer in favor of increased defense allocations. This can testify that following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the youngest do not interpret it as meaning that we in Norway must also have a stronger defence, he says.

The prioritization of the Armed Forces has the greatest support among the elderly. In the age group over 65, 61.5 answer yes. For the youngest, the age group 18–29, the turnout is 24.6 per cent.

1,035 people responded to the survey, which was conducted as automatic telephone interviews. The margin of error is 2.0 to 3.0 points.