WARSAW (AP) – Fifty-one percent of Poles oppose U.S. plans to build a missile defense base in Poland, according to a poll released Monday.
Washington is hoping to place 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar base in the Czech Republic, a plan that has infuriated Russia and sparked concerns throughout Europe.
Though the Polish government has said it is willing to enter negotiations with the United States, the poll showed 23 percent of Poles “definitely” do not want the base and 28 percent prefer not to have it.
Thirty percent support hosting the base, with 8 percent of those saying they were “definitely” for it.
The poll was carried out March 9-11 by the Gfk Polonia center and published in the Rzeczpospolita daily. It questioned 984 adults and gave a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.
There has been almost no grass-roots activity in Poland to stop the base since the U.S. announced that it had made a formal request in January to Warsaw and Prague.
By contrast, street protests in the neighboring Czech Republic have drawn hundreds.
Residents of the Czech village of Trokavec, a proposed site for the radar base, have voiced their opposition, and municipal authorities are trying to block the facility.
“Most of the people said we have to fight against the base, and I promise I will,” Trokavec Mayor Jan Neoral was quoted as saying by the Pravo daily.
