Sweden’s Greens rethink defence spending position after Russia’s airspace violations

Radio Sweden
Posted: Monday, September 22, 2014 at 13:43 — Last Updated: Monday, September 22, 2014 at 20:57
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Russia's violation of Sweden's airspace has some political parties rethinking their position on defence spending. (iStock) — Russia’s violation of Sweden’s airspace has some political parties rethinking their position on defence spending. (iStock)

Last week Russian warplanes flew into Swedish airspace, an incident that is even making the pacifist-rooted Greens reconsider their opposition to defence spending.

“What has happened is extremely serious”, said the party secretary for the Greens, Anders Wallner.

Russian and Nato planes have violated Swedish airspace in the past 12 months, but Sweden’s foreign minister Carl Bildt says this is the most serious case.

The Greens stood for election on a platform of reducing defence spending, for example, they oppose buying the next generation of Gripen planes for the airforce.

But now Anders Wallner says to Swedish Television SVT they are ready to discuss the issue of building up Sweden’s military, as part of a government that “takes a shared responsibility.”

He also signaled a hope that Sweden’s future government, in light of the fact that the Social Democrats and the Greens together did not win a majority in the recent elections, would be based on cross-bloc cooperation, breaking up the system of centre-left and centre-right coalitions that has dominated Swedish politics for more than ten years.