MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Joint poll shows ‘Falklands/Malvinas’ issue is ‘important’ for Argentines, but only ‘relevant’ for Brits

A 42% of UK interviews said they would support war to retain Falklands’ sovereignty

Argentines give more importance than the British to the Falklands/Malvinas sovereignty issue, according to the first public opinion on the matter done simultaneously in both countries involved.

Ibarometro and YouGov revealed that for 86% of Argentines the Malvinas issue is ‘important’ while it is ‘relevant’ for 62% of Brits interviewed. However in spite of the difference, 89% of Argentines and 62% of Brits consider their respective countries’ sovereignty claims legitimate and discard the legitimacy of their counterparts.

Support for the way the government of President Cristina Fernandez is managing the Malvinas conflict reaches 56% while that for PM David Cameron from UK public opinion is only 42%. Furthermore 45% of Argentines feel more supported by the international community in the conflict than the 18% for the British.

As to how to solve the dispute, 83% of Argentines favour diplomatic negotiations, but only 37% of Brits support the idea of a dialogue.

Likewise 66% of Argentines believe the Islands should be returned to Argentina while on the other side, 37% feel the UK should retain sovereignty and 28% support an independent Falkland Islands. The idea of sharing the Islands has the backing of 21% of Argentines and 14% of Brits.

“In spite of the divergence, there is a significant confluence point between both countries: the percentage of those willing to support their governments in the war path is a minority: 26% for the Argentines and 42% for the Brits.

In Argentina the poll was done last April 2, on the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the war when Argentine forces invaded the Falklands and involved 1.800 phone interviews from all over the territory, with a 95% confidence level and an error margin of plus/minus 2.3%.

In the UK the poll was done by internet, last April 2/3 involving 1.744 people and covering the whole territory.