Sweden has an agreement not to place nuclear weapons on Swedish soil in peacetime.
During the foreign policy debate in the Riksdag, however, the Sweden Democrats are opening up to the possibility that nuclear weapons may need to be placed on Swedish soil even in gray-area situations.
"At the moment, it is not relevant, but we are open to the fact that we must move away from the prohibition policy when we see how volatile the security environment is and do not rule out that we may need to place nuclear weapons on Swedish territory," says Aron Emilsson, foreign policy spokesperson for the Sweden Democrats.
Sweden must be a fully integrated part of NATO's nuclear weapons planning, Emilsson continues.
"Now, people have been very cautious about stating this possibility in peacetime, but we cannot rule it out."
Similar to a gray area
When asked if Sweden is in a gray area right now, he answers:
"Yes, it's starting to look like that."
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (M) has said that Sweden, through NATO, participates "in all discussions, including in Europe, that revolve around nuclear weapons." Of the European countries, only France and the United Kingdom have their own nuclear weapons.
Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard (M) emphasizes that if the policy is to change, it must first be discussed with the other NATO countries and in the Swedish Parliament.
The government also remains committed to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
"But when we have serious threats in the East that are rearming and very irresponsible rhetoric about the use of nuclear weapons, we must also be able to deter the irresponsible actor in the East," she says.
Surprised
The Social Democrats' Morgan Johansson is surprised by the Sweden Democrats' statement.
"We have reached a broad agreement. I assume that the agreement we have made with the government - that we will not have any nuclear weapons on Swedish soil - is valid. Then we do not know what will happen after the election; in the worst case Jimmie Åkesson will be foreign minister."
The Left Party, which believes nuclear weapons could harm Sweden's security, says it sees a turnaround among the government parties and the Social Democrats without any real transparency.
"We are seeing a shift in several right-wing parties at a fairly rapid pace. I don't think they have been clear enough to Swedes during the NATO process about what this means and about the fact that deterrence is a completely new way of thinking about military strategy," says the Left Party's spokesperson, Håkan Svenneling.
