Sweden becomes the 32nd member to join the Atlantic alliance. Opponents of this decision denounce the lack of democracy. The people were not consulted.
Having become the 32nd member of NATO, this Monday March 11, the Swedish flag was raised at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels. Stockholm decided to join NATO after Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Although military neutrality is part of the country’s identity, two thirds of citizens support the government’s decision.
For Magnus Petersson, professor of international relations at Stockholm University, Sweden played a role in the alliance, the country was involved in a partnership for peace after the Cold War. But according to him this membership takes another turn.
“We must participate fully in NATO operations, secondly we will sit at the table where decisions are made and we will actually make decisions with the other allies. thirdly, of course, what is most important is Article 5, mutual security guarantees.
For opponents, this decision to join NATO is undemocratic, according to them the people should have been consulted as was the case for other decisions. Kajsa Ekis Ekman, is the editor-in-chief of the Swedish magazine Parable.
“We had referendums on the EU (membership – editor’s note), on the euro, and we said nothing on NATO, which is a much more important issue. But I think that “It took a sort of big crisis like this war between Russia and Ukraine to convince this population, because we liked neutrality.”
Mike Winnerstig of the Swedish Defense Research Agency (FOI) in Stockholm shares the same opinion.
“We had a general election in September, the decision to join NATO was made in May, and that meant that popular opinion clearly had little say in a decision to completely change our security policy.”
By joining the Atlantic alliance, Sweden puts an end to 200 years of non-alignment and military neutrality.
The ratification of this accession was obtained after long negotiations with certain members of the Alliance such as Turkey and Hungary.