On May 16th, the Swedish government formally announced that it will apply for the country’s accession to NATO. During a press conference where Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson was joined by Mr. Ulf Kristersson, leader of the center-right opposition alliance, Ms. Andersson explained that Sweden was about to enter a new era of national-security policy:
Now that Finland has declared their intention to seek NATO accession, Sweden would, if remaining outside [NATO], end up in a very vulnerable position. Therefore, the best for the security of Sweden and the Swedish people, is to join NATO and to do it together with Finland.
The prime minister expressed confidence in the Swedish people’s support for the membership application, however that confidence will not be put to the test. The NATO application will be neither the subject of a vote in the Riksdag—the Swedish Parliament—nor a referendum.
Mr. Kristersson, leader of the prime minister’s loyal opposition, acknowledged that the application process could take time. The historic NATO membership decision by the prime minister’s cabinet, he explained,
is not the end, but just the beginning. A long road lies ahead. First, the application process, which may reach its conclusion by the end of the year, but we are also prepared that it can take longer time. It is our shared opinion that Sweden will be safer inside NATO than outside the alliance.
The NATO membership application represents a sharp turn in Swedish national-security policy. According to SVT, the state-financed broadcast company, the prime minister herself said as recently as in March that a Swedish membership application would be geo-strategically destabilizing for northern Europe.
