In Sweden it is argued that the country must be prepared for war. Joining NATO is imminent.

Swedish soldiers during a joint exercise with US soldiers in September 2023 Photo: Mikaela Landeström/TT/imago

SEDAN taz | The NATO guards have finally relented: Sweden's long wait to enter will soon be history. Turkey's approval is official as of Thursday afternoon: “a crucial milestone,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson tweeted.

And in light of Turkey's progress, Victor Orbàn also announced this week that Hungary would soon be ready as well. After more than a year and a half of stalemate, the timing is strangely good: In Sweden, January 2024 was marked by emotional debates about the threat of war, defense preparedness, and the need for battery-powered radios.

With the turn of the year, the question of increasing recruitment rates began: what would happen if not as many young people wanted to join the army as planned? The concept of conscription had barely been considered again when some speeches at the annual security conference “Folk och Försvar” surprised the Swedes. On the first weekend of January, it suddenly seemed as if the government was expecting an attack from Russia almost any moment.

“An armed attack against Sweden cannot be ruled out. War can come, even to us,” said Defense Minister Pål Jonson (“The Moderates”). In the face of the looming threat from Russia, he declared not only continued support for Ukraine, but also an intention to make Sweden more defensible.

geographically vague

So far we know something similar about Germany: it was only in October that Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) made people sit up and take notice with these kinds of statements, although he left it geographically vaguer with “Europe.”

And in Sweden that was not all. Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin (also “The Moderates”) quickly turned the world political situation into a personal problem for everyone: “Who are you when war comes?” – everyone in Sweden should ask this question for themselves. able to respond, he demanded.

Awareness of the seriousness of the situation must grow among each individual, and this must have practical consequences, Bohlin continued: municipalities must ensure that emergency care works in the event of war, employees must ask their employers where they will need them in In the event of war, individuals should ask themselves where they could be most useful. There's still time for that, Bohlin said, but the fact that emergency preparedness can't be done quickly enough is a worry that keeps him up at night.

He was criticized for his alarmist tone, including by the former Social Democratic Minister of Justice and Interior, Morgan Johansson. He said on Swedish television SVT that this type of tone is usually reserved for situations where war is around the corner. Bohlin reacted in a slightly reassuring way: he did not mean that the Swedes should lie awake all night worrying, but rather that they should become aware of the seriousness of the situation.

prepared for anything

However, Sweden's commander-in-chief Micael Bydén upped the ante: he also demanded from SVT that the entire Swedish society be prepared for anything. Critical infrastructure would have to be kept operational in the event of war, and those not directly deployed in war must also contribute something as civilians.

Afterwards there was a heated discussion in Sweden about how dramatic the situation really was and how to deal with the emotion. The need for the warnings was questioned not only by politicians: the commentator of the Swedish liberal newspaper Dagens Nyheter He said that he had heard in the commander-in-chief's statements a secret longing to finally be able to verify the suitability of his own army for war.

Perhaps unexpectedly, a similar theory emerged from Russia, where parliamentarian Alexei Pushkov mocked Sweden's “paranoia” about Russia on Telegram and suggested that the Swedish military and some journalists were “almost dreaming of war.”

But now the warnings were in the world, accompanied by news such as that Minister Bohlin had commissioned the civil protection authority MSB to develop a plan to support civil authorities that have to adapt to the organization of war.

National defense as a duty

The so-called civil obligation should also be reintroduced. No one had received training for this part of defensive preparation since 2008. To begin with, the rescue service should be strengthened.

The goal is to initially identify people who have completed their training in the emergency services but who no longer work in the area, as said by the general director of the National Recruitment Authority Plikt-och Prövningsverket, Christina Malm. In Sweden, anyone between the ages of 16 and 70 may be required to participate in national defense in the event of war, either directly in the army or in their place of residence.

Four years ago, shortly after the reintroduction of conscription, it was decided that in the future more young people should be recruited for basic military training to increase the army's defense capacity.

There are still between 5,000 and 6,000 per year, and the number is expected to reach five figures. When asked what would happen if not enough young people were found enthusiastic about the army, Christina Malm was unmoved: she can no longer rely solely on the motivation and interest of each of them, she told the TT. news agency. The military takes priority over personal interests. She reminded us again of the principle of compulsory military service: “You should not believe that he is a volunteer. It is not like this”.

For countless generations

The special thing: Sweden holds the world record in the historical discipline “Time elapsed since the last armed conflict”. The certainty that war only indirectly affects Sweden has been part of the culture for countless generations. The latest warnings are even more serious: can war really be imminent, for the first time since 1814?

The decision to abandon the much-loved and long-awaited neutrality after the start of the Russian attacks against Ukraine in February 2022 and officially join the West, that is, NATO, has shown that times have changed.

The then Social Democratic Defense Minister, Peter Hultqvist, explained his abandonment of the traditional no to Sweden in NATO by saying that there was a time before and a time after February 24.

While Sweden was still waiting for Turkey and Hungary's accession blockades to end, bilateral negotiations with the US on a closer military connection were already underway – now under the bourgeois-conservative government of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (“The Moderates “).

Agreement with the USA

The agreement, the Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA), regulates the US military's access to 17 military facilities in Sweden in the event of a crisis. Not as permanent bases, but operations from there should be simplified for the US in case of crisis. Finland, Norway and Denmark have also signed such agreements with the US.

The fact that people in Sweden may no longer be fully aware of the Ukraine war and its international implications and that the government simply wanted to remind them was seen in January as a likely explanation for the cabinet and military's warning tones.

By then, a record number of Swedes had long since downloaded the brochure “When Crisis or War Comes” from the Civil Protection Authority's website. The experts explained on the radio what the difference is between storing and hoarding.

Local newspapers asked questions on the spot: Is it not wrong that the offices in this building, which is used for military purposes, are also rented to the local outpatient service? Aren't military buildings legitimate targets? At the same time, satirical videos about over-preparation were circulating on social media.

More security, more responsibility

Now that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also assumes that the Hungarian parliament will be the last NATO member to ratify Sweden's membership at its next meeting scheduled for February, the Swedish media is devoted to question of what accession will mean.

The summarized message of the SVT broadcaster is: More security, but also more responsibility. It will probably take some time for NATO to integrate new members Finland and Sweden into its defense strategy. But at least Sweden is now used to waiting.