The Swedish foreign minister calmly commented on Finland’s advancement to NATO before Sweden. The opposition leader, on the other hand, did not hide his dissatisfaction. Ordinary Stockholmers took the situation calmly.
STOCKHOLM President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the president Sauli Niinistön the joint performance in Ankara, Turkey had been listened to with close attention in Stockholm.
Foreign minister Tobias Billström according to the current situation is not what Sweden has hoped for. Sweden’s goal has been for Finland and Sweden to become members of the defense alliance NATO at the same time.
Billströn thanked Niinistö for his strong support for Sweden’s membership in Ankara.
Billström was indifferent to the Turkish president’s criticisms and demands regarding Sweden. According to Billström, Sweden fulfills the terms of the Madrid tripartite agreement and does not intend to do more or less. Billströn repeated this pair of words several times.
Billström’s response to Erdogan’s demand to hand over 120 Kurds to Turkey was also the same as before. In Sweden, politicians do not decide on extraditions, independent courts do.
According to Billström, even after today’s news from Ankara, it is not a question of whether Sweden will become a member of NATO, it is only a question of when it will happen. He still believes that Sweden can be a member of NATO by the time of the summit meeting in Vilnius, i.e. in July.
According to Billström, Sweden’s journey to NATO has been known to be longer than Finland’s from the beginning. This comparison was also used by the prime minister on Tuesday Ulf Kristersson and Sweden’s chief negotiator Oscar Stenström. By comparison, the Swedes mean that they have known from the beginning that there are more things to negotiate than in Finland.
Billström did not want to comment on the information from Hungary, according to which Hungary would also proceed with Finland’s application first and Sweden would be left for later processing, as he was only relying on newspaper information.
Magdalena Andersson: a setback for Sweden and NATO
Party leader of the Social Democrats Magdalena Andersson described this day as a setback for both Sweden and NATO. Andersson leads the largest opposition party, the Social Democrats, and was prime minister last spring when Sweden decided to apply for NATO membership.
According to Andersson, the day will be a double disappointment for the current Swedish government if the information about Hungary is true. Andersson said that he had already warned the government about Hungary at the beginning of the week.
According to Andersson, Prime Minister Kristersson now has a tough job ahead of him to make Sweden’s NATO membership a reality. Andersson would now put aside all other issues and focus only on promoting NATO membership
In terms of domestic politics, Andersson urged Kristersson to include all parties in the Diet when talking about NATO in the future. Andersson criticized the prime minister for last week’s meeting with the Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg only the leaders of parties sympathetic to NATO membership had been invited, i.e. not the chairmen of the left-wing party and the Greens at all.
The Swedish man in the street is not afraid
In the center of Stockholm, the new situation, where Finland would seem to advance to NATO before Sweden, was treated calmly.
None of the respondents felt bitterness towards Finland, and the understanding was based for many on geography and Finland’s long border with Russia.
Sweden turned to NATO membership very quickly last spring. One of the respondents thought it was only good that the issue is now being discussed more thoroughly.
None of the interviewees was afraid or believed that Sweden’s security would deteriorate, even if the country is the only Nordic country outside of NATO.