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Sweden Joins NATO – Forget It

We wouldn’t join without Finland

Support for Sweden’s entry into NATO has never been so high. Almost every second the Swede thinks is going to be good.

But forget it now.

Sweden will not join without Finland doing the same.

My colleague Peter Kadmar wrote in yesterday’s column that, despite or thanks to his radical leftist background, he came to the conclusion that Sweden should join the defensive alliance. then.

He is not alone in this opinion. According to Aftonbladet/Demoskop, nearly half of voters, 48 ​​percent, think we should.

It’s the highest That’s a number since Demoscope started asking this question in 2016. Exactly a third, 33 percent, think we should continue to abstain from membership.

But Swedish membership in NATO is not relevant first and foremost. Secretary of State Anne Linde often reiterates that Sweden must be impartial while continuing to work closely with NATO. It’s the model that works best for us, according to her and the government.

Second, Sweden would never join NATO without Finland doing the same. Finland is by far our closest partner in security policy and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

NATO exercises in Latvia.

The Finland case is our case, can also be expressed in the future. And the Swedish thing is Finland.

This has manifested itself in various ways in the turbulent recent weeks since Russia began pressuring the United States to decide on other countries’ foreign and security policies. For example, neither Sweden nor Finland will be allowed to join NATO. The United States promised to respond to the list of demands this week.

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Finnish President Sauli Niinisto was among the first to speak to Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson about the new and safer situation over the weekends. According to their constitution, the Finnish president has a decisive influence on foreign policy.

Ann Lindh and her Finnish colleague Pekka Haavisto held a joint meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg earlier this week.

After the meeting, Stoltenberg stated that Finland and Sweden are the most important NATO partners. You wouldn’t believe it.

We, Finland and Sweden, put ourselves in their own group – although there are differences between us. But not only that – we accepted the outside world as a duo.

Finland, unlike Sweden, has a clear NATO choice. They say out loud that they can apply for NATO membership whenever they want. Sweden does not, although this is normal.

Anne Lind and fellow Finnish colleague Pekka Haavisto held a joint meeting earlier this week with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

We are both with the European UnionWestern alliance with defense policy elements. But Finland has more extensive cooperation than Sweden because it has switched to the single currency, the euro.

But perhaps the most important thing is that both Sweden and Finland have a long coastline towards the strategically important Baltic Sea, with Åland and Gotland occupying a special position. The person who masters it plays a strategically important role with opportunities to master both the naval and air domain.

The delicate situation of Finland With a long border with Russia, that means they’re the ones holding the baton. Only on the day when Finland considers it advantageous for them to join NATO, will Sweden do so too.

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And they don’t think it’s any less important now. This is why Sweden doesn’t do that either.

Support for Finland’s entry into the Finnish Parliament is also low. Only two parties want to go that far. In Sweden, half of the parties want it.

Aftonbladet / Demoscope

Sweden should join Nto

Yes. 48 percent. + 2%

No 33. – 1

I do not know. 19. – 1

The comparison applies to the previous survey conducted a year ago, in December 2020.

This is how the scan was done

The survey was conducted by Demoskop on behalf of Aftonbladet in the framework of the Inizio panel as
Reflects the Swedish people. The target group is the general public aged 16 and over. The survey covers 1029
Interviews are from December 13-17, 2021 and are conducted as a web-based survey.
The sample was previously stratified and weighted by age, gender, region, and party in previous elections.


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