In a cramped office in central Stockholm — filled with young people wearing badges that simply say no — Lowisa Anderzon is working the phones. She is making cold calls to likely voters, trying to get Swedes to go to the polls on Sept. 14 and reject the proposal that this Scandinavian nation of 9 million people should join the euro. The yes side has mounted a slick, expensive campaign funded by big businesses that support the European common currency. But they're trailing in the polls because of people like Anderzon, a 27-year-old nursing assistant at a Stockholm hospital, who is working for free because she believes the euro is bad for Sweden. "If we join the euro, it will move power from Sweden to Brussels," she says. "As a nurse I can't go to Brussels and ask for help. We see the world with different eyes."

The euro referendum has sharply divided Sweden, a country normally renowned for its consensus approach to politics. A survey last week by opinion research firm Sifo shows 47% of voters are against the euro and 41% in favor. But the momentum appears to be behind the yes camp, which has picked up a substantial seven percentage points in the last week. The poll reveals a surprising pattern of opinion: men in private-sector jobs tend to favor the euro, while women in public-sector jobs are opposed. Urban voters are more likely to favor the euro — Stockholm overwhelmingly supports the yes camp — while people in small towns and rural areas are against. The campaign has even divided the government, with Prime Minister Göran Persson leading the charge in favor of the euro, while five of the 19 ministers in his cabinet are opposed. Even Persson's Social Democratic Party is sharply divided. If the referendum fails, it could send shock waves far beyond Sweden to Britain, where the government is still debating when to put the issue of joining the euro to a vote.

The no side has consistently led in the polls all year. Still, a week before the vote, some 20% of voters were undecided. So far, the late deciders seem to be going to the yes camp, but whether that's due to the strength of its argument or the size of its war chest depends on whom you ask. The government allocated €5.5 million to both the no and yes camps to finance the campaigns. But that equality didn't last long. Some 70% of the 57,000 businesses in the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise support the euro.

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nginx/1.14.0 (Ubuntu) They started a separate, privately financed campaign organization called Sweden in Europe. The yes side refuses to provide figures about its budget, but Sören Wibe, leader of the Social Democrat faction that opposes joining the euro, estimates that it is 10 times the amount received from the government — an astounding sum to spend on an election in this country. With that bankroll, they have shouted yes slogans in every legal form. Though political TV advertising is outlawed, the country is awash in debate. On Stockholm street corners, workers dutifully dispense yes or no pins from little huts. And would-be voters are assaulted by huge hanging banners and billboards: "Better krona in your pocket than euros in your unemployment check," said one billboard erected by the no campaigners.

Persson's main argument is economic: join the euro now and trade will increase with the rest of the euro zone, interest rates will drop from the current 2.75% to the 2% level in Euroland and investment in the country will increase. Sounds good — until you notice that the economies of the three E.U. members outside the euro — Britain, Denmark and Sweden — are actually doing much better than the 12 countries that have already adopted the euro. Economic growth in Sweden is expected to hit 1.4% this year, compared to 0.4% in recessionary Germany. Unemployment in Sweden is just 5.4%, almost half of the jobless total in Germany or France. And most ironic of all, nonmonetary member Sweden has met the deficit criteria of the Stability and Growth Pact designed to support the euro, while the biggest monetary members Germany and France have repeatedly flouted the pact's limits.

Göran Tunhammar, director general of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, says that if the country votes no, the Swedish krona will weaken, interest rates will rise and the country will have to adopt structural reforms to compete in Europe. While most businessmen share this view, some important voices have spoken out against it. Rune Andersson, chairman of the board of Electrolux, the giant producer of washing machines and dishwashers that is Sweden's fourth-largest business, says he favors keeping an independent krona and central bank for Sweden, even though the company loses out when export receipts are converted back from euros. "We now have had 11 years of a floating currency, which has been the best period in this country for the past 30 years," Andersson says. "To have an independent central bank combined with a free market setting long-term interest rates has been a kind of a watchdog against misconduct of policies in Sweden."

Some individuals seem to be split against themselves. Jörgen Appelgren, chief economist at Nordea Bank, recites the main arguments in favor: increased growth and trade and lower interest rates. But he admits that he is personally against the euro. He argues that in case of troubled economic times ahead, the European Central Bank (E.C.B.) in Frankfurt will adopt policies best suited for Germany, France and Italy rather than tiny Sweden. By ceding control of monetary policy to the E.C.B., he fears, it will be hard for Sweden to use the fiscal tools of government spending to correct the problem.

But such abstractions are not foremost in voters' minds. The real opposition to the euro is political. The fright scenario is: the European Union will eventually adopt measures to harmonize taxes, which will mean a cutback in high-tax countries like Sweden. The government will respond by cutting the budget, which will translate into slashing public-sector jobs like teachers and nurses. These jobs are held mostly by women, which helps explain female hostility to the euro. "We would give away the power over our economy," says Zaida Catalán, a Green Party activist who was talking down the euro at Stockholm's Central Station last week. "Monetary union will lead to worse conditions in the workplace."

It's difficult to fight against the politics of fear, but the yes side has raised the stakes in the debate by hinting Sweden faces a bleak future without the euro. In a newspaper article, Carl-Henric Svanberg, the CEO of phone-giant Ericsson, said that companies would stop investing in Sweden and might even move out of the country if voters reject the euro. Opponents note Denmark did precisely that in 2000 and nothing dire happened there. Persson has also been warning that Sweden won't get a second chance at joining the euro for at least a decade, hoping to defuse the argument that a no vote is really a "wait-and-see" measure.

Turnout is expected to be lower than for normal elections, which should hurt the no side. The yes campaign is hoping the large number of undecided voters will come around to their position at the last minute; that's what happened when Sweden voted to join the European Union in 1994. But for no campaigners like Lowisa Anderzon, the choice is between an independent Sweden and a country run by bureaucrats in Brussels and Frankfurt. It's rare for economic arguments to beat such channeled patriotism, but it just might happen.

• CHARLES P. WALLACE | Stockholm
• A divided Sweden votes on the euro — and it's still too close to call