The Green Party still thinks that Sweden should not join NATO, but still does not want the application to be withdrawn, because it has already been submitted and there is a broad majority in the Riksdag for NATO membership. Can it be said that the Green Party has gone from being opposed to NATO to being critical of NATO?
“We will continue to be critical of much of NATO’s work. Above all, it is the case that NATO also bases its defense policy on nuclear weapons. The Green Party’s view is that a world where we have nuclear weapons will never be a safe world. Therefore, we will to continue to push for Sweden to sign the UN nuclear weapons convention and for us to be a strong voice for us to dismantle nuclear weapons in the world. And we think that would have been easier to do outside NATO, but will continue to push those issues when Sweden become members,” says Per Bolund.
Prohibition of nuclear weapons
The Green Party will vote no to the government’s bill that will formally enable Swedish membership in NATO. But at the same time, they do not want to withdraw Sweden’s NATO application.
The party will make its own proposal to enact a law banning nuclear weapons on Swedish soil.
“We want it to be enshrined in law, as it is in Finland, that Sweden shall not use nuclear weapons on Swedish territory, neither in peacetime nor in wartime. And this bill does not make that clear enough,” says Per Bolund.
The government do not want to enter NATO with any reservations, but i the bill states that they see no reason to have nuclear weapons or permanent bases in Sweden in peacetime, and that it is the countries themselves that decide whether they want nuclear weapons on their soil. But the Green Party, which wants to see a ban, thinks it’s too vague.
“What happens if the next government has a different opinion on this issue? Will they then open up to nuclear weapons on Swedish soil? We have no guarantees about that. It is also because nuclear weapon countries risk becoming a target in a conflict on a another way,” says Per Bolund.
Saved by upvotes
In the last parliamentary election, the Green Party received 5.1 percent of the vote. But in opinion polls before the election, they were below the Riksdag’s four percent barrier in opinion polls. According to new calculations from the political scientist Henrik Ekengren Oscarsson at the University of Gothenburg, it was votes of support from, above all, social democrats that made the MP retain their parliamentary seats.
But in the Green Party’s election analysis there is not much self-criticism and there is a lack of suggestions on how the party should develop its policy in order to find new voters, it is more about the party needing to improve its communication and branding. Does Per Bolund think that politics needs to change?
“Yes, we need to come up with new political proposals and reforms,” says Per Bolund.
Guest: Per Bolundmouthpiece for the Green Party
Host: Cecilia Strömberg Wallin
Commentator: Fredrik Furtenbackdomestic political commentator Ekot
Technician: Johanna Carell
Producer: Maja Lagercrantz
Source: ICELAND NEWS