Airstrip One

Slovenia votes yes - 23rd March 2003, 19.54

Exit polls have shown that Slovenians have approved membership of both the European Union and NATO.

According to a poll conducted by state TV, 60 percent voted in favor of joining NATO, and 40 percent against. The poll indicated support for membership in the EU at 93 percent, with only 7 percent against.

Should we welcome them as an ally? I think not.

``NATO is a necessary evil, but I chose common sense, which tells me it's a lesser evil and that there could always be something worse,'' Janez Zebeljan, a hotel receptionist in Ljubljana, said after voting yes to NATO.''

The only reason they voted yes was because they wanted 'influence', and they will get it in the consensus driven structure of NATO. Another notch in the decline of this obsolescent alliance.