SLOVENIA: Slovenians yesterday approved joining NATO and the European Union next year in two referendums according to projections based on exit polls, a result the government hopes will bring the former Yugoslav state into the fold of a stable and prosperous western Europe.
Some 56.1 per cent voted in favour of joining NATO and 90.3 per cent voted to join the EU, according to projections based on exit polls broadcast on RTV Slovenia public television and the private POP-TV after voting ended at 7 p.m.
Opponents to joining NATO accounted for 43.9 per cent of the vote, while only 9.7 per cent voted against joining the EU.The first official results for the binding referendums were expected around 8:30 p.m.
If the results are confirmed the centre-left government of Prime Minister Anton Rop was expected to send a letter to Brussels today accepting the invitation the Alliance issued the country last year.
Slovenia is one of 10 countries expected to sign the EU's accession treaty on April 16th.
While the outcome of the referendum was never much in doubt, public support for joining NATO has dropped to a slim majority since the start of the US-led war on Iraq.
The newspaper Delo reported on Friday that 51 per cent of respondents in an opinion poll said they supported NATO membership, while almost 33 per cent said they opposed it, and just over 16 per cent were still undecided.
But analysts had expected the NATO membership to be approved as the government had mounted an information campaign that said joining was necessary to give the former communist state and its 1.9 million citizens more security and to avoid international isolation. "We have to be aware that current international environment and situation are not beneficial for the referendum," said Mr Rop after voting in the northern suburb of Vodice where he lives.
"In these circumstances the result could be a little weaker, but I believe that overall chances that this referendum will succeed are good."
Mr Rop's government has given moderate support to Washington during the Iraq crisis, but declined to allow US arms transit across its territory without UN approval of the war.
Steady popular opposition to war - including a demonstration that brought 1,000 protesters out in front of the US embassy in the capital yesterday - would not ultimately sway the vote, Mr Rop said.
President Janez Drnovsek, who voted at a fire station in Ljubljana, said he hoped the US and British offensive across Iraq would not affect the polls.
"Maybe it shows how serious the situation in the world is, and that it is better to be accompanied by other states than to be alone.
"I'm glad this day has come, we've been working a lot over the last years to get here," said Mr Drnovsek, who was one of the main architects of Slovenia's independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.
The Foreign Minister, Mr Dimitrij Rupel, was also upbeat: "I expect the referendum to succeed. Don't expect me to vote against it."
The recent assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and a new border incident with the Croatian police in the Adriatic Sea have also scared Slovenians, who want their tiny Alpine country, founded in 1991, to be part of a stable western Europe. - (AFP)