It is drawing closer to the American presidential election and the whole world is waiting for the result if it is Donald Trump or Kamala Harris who will be in office.
The Swedish government is preparing to cooperate with both – and does not want to comment on who they prefer to see as president.
– Dit is a genuine Swedish interest and security interest that we can cooperate well regardless of which president American voters choose, says Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard.
The 2008 election gave Fredrik Reinfeldt’s bourgeois government support for Barack Obama, but when Obama ran four years later to stay in power, Reinfeldt was silent about which way the support would go. Even then Prime Minister Stefan Löfven expressed support for Hillary Clinton in 2016, but in the next election he did not want to choose between Trump or Biden.
During the recent elections, Sweden’s governments have taken different decisions on whether or not to express support for a presidential candidate in the United States. This election, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and the government have chosen not to take a position. Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard explains why she does not want to choose between Trump or Harris.
– Now I sit here as foreign minister and the government has no candidate, but for us it is a genuine Swedish interest and security interest that we can cooperate well regardless of which president the American voters choose, says Maria Malmer Stenergard in Efter fem.
Had a good working relationship with the Biden administration
The foreign minister says that there has been very good cooperation with the Biden administration, which was important for Sweden to be able to join NATO. At the same time, many worry that Trump will leave NATO and reduce military cooperation with Europe if he becomes president, but that is not something that Stenergard wants to agree to.
– I don’t want to speculate, but I note that there was very broad support for the large support package last spring in the US in Congress. In both camps, so to speak, says Maria Malmer Stenergard.
She also does not want to say advantages or disadvantages of the various presidential candidates.
– The only thing we know is that after every American election, regardless of whether the party color of the president is changed or not, it has an impact on politics. We have to deal with that, but we don’t know exactly what will happen with the respective presidential candidate. On the other hand, we must have a preparation for different scenarios, but they are primarily based on different policy orientations, says Maria Malmer Stenergard.
Today 19:16