2024-01-10 14:36:42
“Ukraine has taught us that a country’s most important resource in the war is the people’s common will to defend themselves,” Kristersson, leader of the conservative Moderate Party, told the Folk och Försvar defence conference on Monday, held annually at the Sälen ski resort.
“We, too, must begin to discuss the expectations that come with Swedish citizenship. Ultimately, it is about defending Sweden, our values and our way of life – with weapons in hand and our lives on the line. Citizenship is not a travel document,” he added.
Asked by the Svenska Dagbladet daily at a press conference after the speech whether he could see a difference between people who are born as Swedish citizens and those who become citizens later in life in terms of their willingness to defend Sweden, Kristersson said:
“My absolute point is that for a lot of people, the Swedish passport has become a way to be able to move around easily, to be able to get consular protection from Sweden. But I’m not sure that everyone has thought through what it means to also be prepared to sacrifice one’s life for the country of which you’re a citizen.”
READ ALSO:
Andersson accused Kristersson of implying that new Swedish citizens would be less willing than others to defend the country.
“His message was uniquely divisive,” Swedish news agency TT quoted her as saying.
“What we need in Sweden now is cohesion, trust, a high degree of awareness, but also of course a strong will to defend. That kind of divisive statement is taking the country in exactly the opposite direction.”
Advertisement
Civil Defence Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin told TT in a written statement that a former prime minister such as Andersson should refrain from “bad faith misinterpretations and political mud wrestling” in such a serious situation.
He also said Andersson was playing up a “false contradiction”.
“Ulf Kristersson hasn’t made the slightest hint that new citizens would have a lower willingness to defend themselves,” said Bohlin.
Also at the Folk och Försvar conference, Bohlin himself sparked a stir when he told the audience that “there could be war in Sweden”, meaning that the country’s two centuries of peace do not protect it from war, sentiments echoed by Supreme Commander Micael Bydén.
TOTAL DEFENCE:
#Swedens #opposition #leader #slams #prime #minister #uniquely #divisive #comments