Dimitri Lascaris Sep 3, 2023 READ
I spoke this week with Wilke Wilcek of Sweden’s Communist Party about Sweden’s accession to NATO. According to Wilcek, shortly before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, only 32% of Swedes supported Swedish membership in NATO, but after the invasion began, the Swedish political elite and Sweden’s establishment media engaged in a “huge propaganda campaign” in favour of NATO membership. Now, about 58% of Swedes support NATO.
Wilcek points out that Sweden has been neutral for 200 years, and a substantial part of the population continues to support neutrality. The challenge for supporters of neutrality is that they have been ignored or stigmatized as ‘Russian agents’ by Sweden’s media.