Public opinion company YouGov carried out a poll commissioned by PAX and ICAN on how Dutch citizens think about nuclear weapons. The results are clear: a majority of the Dutch citizens want to get rid of US nuclear weapons in the Netherlands, don’t want the JSF to have a nuclear task, that the Netherlands sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and that banks stop investing in nuclear weapon producers.
The representative sample with more than 1000 Dutch citizens shows that 5 out of 10 citizens want to get rid of US nuclear weapons in the Netherlands. These weapons are deployed on flight base Volkel in the Netherlands since the 50s. Over the years there have been strong public opposition against it.
Nuclear Task Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)
People were also asked about how they think about the nuclear task for the JSF, the successor of the F-16. The poll shows that 45% of the Dutch citizens don’t want the Netherlands to invest in new fighter jets with a nuclear task. It makes people uncomfortable that Dutch pilots can make thousands of civilian casualties by using American weapons and that these weapons make the Netherlands vulnerable for retaliation attacks.
Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
A big majority of the Dutch citizens want the Dutch government to sign the TPNW. Already 23 states have ratified this treaty. Lastly, almost 7 out of 10 of the Dutch citizens don’t want banks, pension funds and insurers to invest in nuclear weapons.
Below you can find an overview of the results of the opinion poll:
