Will Sweden Ever Join Nato?
Today's National Day celebrations might be the last taking place in a non-aligned Sweden.
Summer temperatures just arrived. Everywhere you look is fifty shades of green, and all is in bloom.
Swedes have a lot else to think about than if Turkey’s Erdogan and Hungary’s Orbán will end their obstruction to Sweden’s joining Nato. Such as arguing about if it’s right or wrong that some youngsters leaving gymnasium [high school] are waving their parents’ home country’s flag rather than Sweden’s.
Or more likely just enjoying the newly arrived summer.
The only thing reminding you that a full scale war is going on less a thousand kilometers away from Swedish borders are the covers of the evening newspapers.
Every day they’re finding a new angle on Putin’s power circle or a new speculation on the outcome of the war. But as this is rarely real news, most Swedes have gone back to thinking about what’s in front of them.
Some of this, like rising food prices and interest rates, are at least partly results of the war. But for every month, fewer people think about the trenches meandering through the breadbasket of Europe when they contemplate the high amount they’re billed at the cash register.
But even if the Nato issue is not top of mind today, on Sweden’s National Day, attitudes towards joining the military alliance has changed fundamentally since Putin’s full invasion of Ukraine.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Last Night in Sweden to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.