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Lena Mellin

Referendum on NATO - forget it quickly

Takes a long time and there may be the wrong answer

PUBLISHED: LESS THAN 1 HOUR AGE

UPDATED: LESS THAN 20 MIN THEN

COLUMNISTS

If you think you should be allowed to join and decide whether we should join NATO, forget it.

There will be no referendum.

The road to NATO looks different.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has once again raised the issue of Swedish membership in the NATO defense alliance.

According to a recent opinion poll from Aftonbladet / Demoskop, 51 percent of the Swedish people think it's time now.

But the parties are divided. Four, namely M, KD, L and C, are for. The other four are against Swedish NATO membership.

An ideal arrangement for a referendum, one might think. But forget it. This question will not be submitted to the Swedish people. The reasons are as follows:

• There is a risk that the Swedish people will vote "wrong". And that must not happen.

- Not all issues are necessarily best decided in a referendum, as Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson put it.

• The Social Democrats and the Moderates must agree on this issue and they are not. As I said, M is for a membership in NATO. The Social Democrats are against - at least officially.

• Sweden and Finland must join NATO at the same time. This presupposes that the countries agree to join and it is not decided in a referendum but in closed rooms.

• A referendum takes a long time. It must be planned, election campaigns must be carried out and so on. The NATO decision will, if and when it is taken, require speed.

"Not all issues are necessarily best decided in a referendum," as Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson put it.

"Not all issues are necessarily best decided in a referendum," as Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson put it.

This is due, according to experts, to the fact that the time between us ceasing to be militarily non-aligned until we are full members is considered risky for Swedish security. This is, so to speak, the last chance to attack Sweden before the whole of NATO sets up on our side.

But the rumors buzz with undiminished force; Sweden is on its way to NATO. Like Finland.

They were nurtured in a discussion in the Finnish Parliament at the turn of the month. After the meeting, Prime Minister Sanna Marin did not flatly say no to Finnish membership. She said instead:

- Such an important issue must be treated carefully.

The rumors were further fueled by Finnish President Pauli Niinistö's visit to the US President this weekend. Which in turn led to Biden calling Magdalena Andersson and the following day she made a lightning trip to Helsinki for meetings with Niinistö and Sanna Marin.

Something is quite obvious going on. But it is not a Swedish NATO application. At least not right now.

On the one hand, Minister of Finance Mikael Damberg states that the Social Democrats are short on this issue. No NATO accession ,.

On the one hand, it is probably less well thought out to change footing on such an important issue in the midst of a burning crisis. A crisis in which Vladimir Putin specifically pointed out Sweden and Finland as part of the Russian sphere of interest, at least in the more peripheral one.

None of this prevents Sweden from taking the last step in the future and applying for full membership in NATO.

But in that case, it will take place in agreement between the two largest parties, S and M, and together with Finland. And it will go away - without a time-consuming referendum.

FACTS: NATO

NATO, or North Atlantic Treaty Organization, was formed after World War II, specifically in 1949.

The Defense Alliance currently has 30 members on both sides of the Atlantic. The United States plays a leading role.

Sweden has been a member of NATO's friend body "Partnership for Peace" since the 1990s. The Armed Forces co-operate with NATO and Swedish military material has been NATO-adapted.G

Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg calls Sweden and Finland NATO's closest partners.