A majority of Latvians oppose their government’s drive to join the euro zone this coming January, an opinion poll in the EU Baltic state showed on Monday. Sixty-two percent of respondents do not favor the currency switch, compared to 36% who said they do, a survey published by the TNS pollsters showed. Unfazed by the euro zone’s lumbering debt crisis, Latvia – an ex-Soviet nation of two million people – has requested EU approval for entry as the zone’s 18th member on January 1. Riga insists that it already meets euro zone criteria on inflation, public debt and deficits and an EU decision is expected in early July. But opinion surveys have consistently shown very few Latvians are cheering. Twenty-four percent surveyed by TSN said they were “very negative” about the switch, compared to just 7% who were “very positive”. The survey of 1,016 Latvian residents aged 15-74 was conducted from April 2-23.