Under the driving rain of a Brussels springtime, the Swedish flag was raised on Monday outside Nato’s headquarters. The organisation’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, welcomed the alliance’s newest member in its native language: “To all Swedes, I say: ‘Välkommen till Nato’.” The Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson , vowed that his country would be a “proud member” driven by “unity and solidarity”.
But, while he basks in the glow of his country finally joining Nato after months of delays, Sweden’s once thriving peace movement is smarting.
Once widely visible in debates and on the streets – particularly over nuclear weapons, disarmament and the Vietnam war – the movement had already been on the wane since the end of the cold war.
But at the Olof Palme International Centre in Stockholm, a short walk from where the peace campaigner and former Swedish prime minister was assassinated, there is a feeling that ever since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the subject of peace has disappeared from public debate.
Anna Sundström, the secretary general of the centre, a democracy and social justice organisation, said: “It was perceived to be totally naive to talk about peace. That space was not there. We were called ‘naive’ or ‘Putinist’, making an argument that was only serving the interests of Russia.”
Instead, Sweden rapidly made the decision to apply to join Nato, abruptly ending its 200 years of military non-alignment and issuing warnings that the Nordic country – whose neighbours are Finland, Denmark and Norway – was at imminent threat of war.
Kristersson’s rhetoric had been “reckless”, said Sundström. “We are not standing on the brink of war. It’s extremely dangerous to talk in these terms.” Even if war were imminent, preparedness was about much more than just military equipment, she added.
A further blow came in December when the government announced it was abolishing a peace fund that had been providing financial support to peace organisations since the 1920s. For Sundström it was “a worrying sign that the government does not want these kinds of views to be strong”.
On Thursday night, Kristersson was First Lady Jill Biden’s guest of honour at the US president’s State of the Union speech – hours after the final Nato documentation exchanged hands. The prime minister, who has been grappling with the issue of Sweden’s Nato membership since taking office in 2022, beamed as he was praised mid-speech by the president and applauded by the room.
Ulf Bjereld, a political science professor at Gothenburg University and an active Social Democrat, said Sweden’s entry into Nato was a failure of the peace movement. “There is very big disappointment among the peace movement in Sweden now. The debate process went so fast and the peace movement failed to stop Nato membership,” he said.
When Magdalena Andersson, the Social Democrat leader and former prime minister, who led Sweden’s initial Nato application, decided to support joining the western military alliance, the peace movement was “too weak”. “They tried to mobilise but it was an issue that was very difficult for them,” added Bjereld.
But now that the deal has been done, he believes the movement’s goals should include banning nuclear weapons on Swedish land.
Stockholm also has a chance to take a stand within the alliance, but Bjereld believes that may depend on who is in government and whether or not Donald Trump wins the next US election.
But many will long for Sweden’s former policy of military non-alignment, which, Lisa Nåbo, the chair of Sweden’s Social Democratic Youth Association (SSU) who is running for the EU parliament, said “gave us a voice to criticise and prioritise humanity and solidarity”.
There were fewer protests and dissenting voices than there might have been because of the political sensitivity around the subject, she added. “If you criticise Nato, you’re automatically pro-Russian. In the debate there is not the possibility to have two thoughts in your head at the same time.”
Critics reject this interpretation but also say that peace activists such as Nåbo are deluded if they think there is room for ambiguity with an emboldened Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. Before the Social Democrats changed their minds on the issue in a major policy reversal in May 2022, Kristersson accused Andersson of pleasing only Russia with her comments against joining Nato. He said at the time: “There isn’t anything to be neutral between any more. There is the west and there is Russia.”
Meanwhile, among younger generations the immediacy of the climate crisis could sometimes outweigh taking a long-term view on issues such as Nato, she said.
Having not been given a referendum on Nato or the ability to vote in the last election because they were too young, she believes teenagers should be given more clarity on what military service entails.
The Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society, which at 140 years old is one of the world’s oldest peace organisations, has seen membership soar from 6,500 before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to more than 15,000.
But its president Kerstin Bergeå, who has called Sweden’s Nato membership “a historic misprioritisation”, said that overall during the Nato debate there was “very little space for critical voices” and accused Sweden of giving in to the demands of the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán. “Sweden’s historic voice for peace seems to have quietened. We are worried [it] … will go silent.”
Now that Sweden has joined Nato, she hopes it will act as a “peacemaker” within the alliance and take a strong stance against nuclear weapons.
Emma Berginger, a Green party MP who is on the government’s defence committee, said the war in Ukraine was a “huge gamechanger” for the peace movement and for her party, as well as the Swedish population. But she said the application was rushed and should have been subject to more public debate, which meant many were unclear on what being a Nato member really entailed.
Although the Greens voted against Nato membership, they have decided to respect the outcome and will not be calling for Sweden to leave. “Instead we want to work in a constructive way influencing what role Sweden may take in the alliance,” she said.
