The Swedish public’s support for the new Danish-Swedish political collaboration in the Øresund Region has diminished, according to a survey carried out by the SOM Institute in Gothenburg in the autumn of 2015 just before the border controls were introduced.
Researchers found that most people in Scania (71 percent) do not care one way or the other about the ongoing partnership between Greater Copenhagen and the southern region of Sweden.
Some 14 percent of the 2,000 respondents said collaboration between the two regions was ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’.
The survey also revealed that support to build a fixed link between Helsingborg and Helsingør fell from 44 percent in 2011 to 36 percent in 2015.
READ MORE: Copenhagen and Malmø considering Øresund metro link
Work in Denmark
Following the news in Copenhagen has also become less important to residents in Scania – interest fell from 45 percent in 2011 to 43 percent in 2015.
Fewer Swedes wish to move to Copenhagen or work there, although this does not apply to the younger generations.
Some 50 percent of those aged 16-29 can imagine working in Denmark.
“Perhaps the regional co-operation should focus more on the tangible benefits: jobs, housing and the opportunity to travel by plane from Copenhagen Airport,” Jesper Falkheimer, a professor of strategic communications at Lund University, told News Øresund.
“Then it would become a more concrete discussion in the region.”
