Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on March 15. Portal/ © Annegret Hilse/Portal
It’s a double blackmail he probably wouldn’t have used. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson did not hide his surprise during Thursday’s European Council, while on Monday Hungary, through its parliament, will ratify Helsinki’s accession to NATO, but not Stockholm’s. “Why are you separating Sweden from Finland?” he said on the radio. Those are signals we didn’t have before. »
The insidious reasons of Budapest and Ankara
The rationale given by Budapest is twisted: Swedish politicians must stop “lying” about rule of law violations in Hungary, said a senior official of Fidesz, the party of nationalist leader Viktor Orbán, in early March. His team promised the green light had “a good chance” of being given before mid-June, but argued that a parliamentary majority on the issue was uncertain. For Ulf Kristersson, Orbán’s weak ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin also have something to do with it.
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The 58-year-old liberal-conservative leader faces another hostile front: that of Turkey. Again, Sweden’s historic entry into the military alliance is blocked, while the way is wide open for its Finnish neighbor. Ankara accuses him of being a haven for Kurdish “terrorist” militants and refusing extraditions – in reality, the Swedish judiciary has the final say. “Uffe”, the nickname his relatives gave him, will need his talent as a former communicator to reverse the trend.