You are expected to take responsibility in very disturbed circumstances

THE SEAL. Carl-Oskar Bohlin does not want to be a master politician, but the minister for civil defense has some sympathy for the Swedish population.

With conflicts and wars in Europe and an increasingly tense global situation, the minister believes that there is a question every citizen should ask themselves. A question inspired by John F Kennedy.

– Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.

Carl-Oskar Bohlin is annoyed. He thinks that the image of him as a minister who likes to lecture the Swedish population is unfair. At the same time, he has repeatedly complained, including about the poor judgment of some motorists during snow chaos on the country’s roads. Last winter, he was out on social media and gave good advice for what you should take with you in the car during the snowy parts of the year. “Have a well-fueled/well-charged car, a shovel, warm clothes, a bottle of water and some type of calories on hand” was some of the advice.

– I don’t think you should exaggerate. What I have said are extremely basic things such as not driving a car with summer tires when there is snow.

– It’s not even legal to do that, I don’t really know if it can be perceived as a strong admonition.

Last year, the otherwise fairly anonymous minister for civil defense made a big noise right here at the People and Defense security conference. Then he managed to make himself known not only in Sweden but also internationally, but a statement that was described by critics as warlike and heated.

Last year you said in your speech that there could be war in Sweden. How do you view that statement today?

– In exactly the same way as when I said it, namely that it was a way of describing the situation in a sincere way.

– But also as I said in the speech in connection with it, that it was a way of trying to open some kind of mental door that is perhaps cluttered with a lot of things in everyday life that you have on hand.

– I think that a prerequisite for being able to work broadly with society’s preparedness is to begin with an awareness of the situation and what it then requires of us.

The statement that there could be war in Sweden still caused many to put their afternoon coffee down their throats. This year, the tone has been somewhat milder, and Bohlin also thinks he sees how people view their preparedness in a new way.

– In the speech I gave today, I tried to continue along that path. It requires us to understand that all the freedoms we have had during the period of strategic de-escalation, which many of us just took for granted – in order to be able to preserve and maintain these freedoms and what is the foundation for Sweden and for the society we live in i – there will likely be much higher demands placed on all of us.

– And it starts with the individual with the awareness that they are part of the total defence.

Where military defense has a clear role, it is somewhat more diffuse how to build preparedness and resilience in a society through civil defense.

Sweden’s civil preparedness has for many years been a somewhat dormant activity. Since last autumn, civil preparedness is part of the Defense Decision, the document that governs the direction of Sweden’s defense policy. The defense decision applies to defense planning until 2030 and contains three parts – total defence, military defense and civil defense, for which Carl-Oskar Bohlin is the responsible minister.

– For the first time since the end of the war, we have got what we call a civilian framework in place. That is to say, a concerted investment in the entire civil defence, all ten preparedness sectors. But then especially six priority sectors that are particularly important for the rest of society to function.

Carl-Oskar Bohlin enumerates the priority areas: electricity supply, healthcare, electronic communications, emergency services, protecting the civilian population, food supply and water security.

– It is the physical part that has to come to fruition. The second part is to create awareness in the population.

– You are expected to be able to take care of yourself, take responsibility for yourself. If you are a person who under normal circumstances can do it, you must be able to do it even under very disturbed and difficult circumstances.

– You must also have the capacity to fulfill your total defense duty, i.e. to contribute to some type of defense effort or management of a difficult crisis in an even more difficult security policy situation.

Bohlin doesn’t want to be a master politician, but he still has some quirks.

– If you haven’t spent time with the idea of ​​what you can do for your country, it’s probably time to do it now.