Hungary gives green light: Sweden joins Nato

Stockholm clearly considers Moscow more dangerous now than ever before, emphasises Jyllands-Posten:

“It says something about the seriousness of the situation that Sweden was willing to wave goodbye to 200 years of consistent neutrality in the face of the threat in the east. After all, the country has been living with this threat for almost 200 years - and even during the Cold War the Russian bear never roared loudly enough for Swedish politicians to waver in their belief that they could face it alone. Not even a Soviet submarine that strayed into the archipelago was able to shake this belief. Turning away from this now will certainly change the Swedish identity that was always so solid.”

Dala-Demokraten mourns the loss of Swedish neutrality:

“The immediate consequence of Sweden's Nato accession and impending membership is of course that political and security tensions in our part of the world will actually increase instead of decreasing. The Baltic will become a more dangerous sea than ever before. ... And Sweden has become a smaller place mentally as a result. Those of us who are not happy about all this are certainly in the minority, but self-confident majorities can be wrong. And this much is clear: military rearmament will not solve the world's problems: it will only make them worse.”

Dagens Nyheter is overjoyed:

“In a few days, a week at the most, Sweden will be a member of Nato. That is fantastic. Sweden is coming home at last. ... Of course we must continue to upgrade our defence system and integrate it into Nato structures. But above all this represents a shift in mindset. We are getting security guarantees. But it is equally important that we give them in return. Together, we must be prepared to defend democracy in our part of the world using military means. This is absolutely right, but also an entirely new situation for us.”

The accession puts an end to 200 years of Swedish neutrality, Aftonbladet observes.

“This was all down to Vladimir Putin's decision to insist on a Russian sphere of interest in Europe and march unprovoked into Ukraine. For Sweden it was the end of an era in our history. Sadly, there is no sign that Putin has any intention of changing his strategy. Most analysts are warning about more wars in Europe in the coming years. We have no idea where that will lead. But whatever happens now, we will not be alone.”

Politiken welcomes the expansion of the alliance in Northern Europe, particularly now that America can no longer be relied on for support:

“We can now take inspiration from our new Nato members. Because while countries like Denmark have allowed their territorial defence – and the population's will to defend itself – to get by under the American security shield, Sweden and Finland in particular have a very different sense of things and a completely different tradition of national defence. They know that the best defence is strong self-defence and that the fight for security begins at home. It is a lesson that all of Europe must now take on board.”

Estonia can also rejoice, writes Eesti Päevaleht:

“If one of Putin's pretexts for the attack on Ukraine was the fear that Nato would 'close in on' him from all sides, then the attack has achieved exactly that. The Baltic Sea has now effectively become an inland sea for Nato, and that also gives us here in Estonia, as a member of the alliance, much greater security. ... Of course, the threat from Russia is far from banished. Now it's time to update Nato's military deterrence capabilities. The number of alliance partners spending more than two percent of their GDP on defence should rise to 18 this year.”

It all went pretty quickly for Stockholm in the end, Rzeczpospolita notes:

“Sweden was admitted to Nato very quickly – which is not to negate the justified criticism of Orbán's tactics. It expressed its interest two years ago, after Russia triggered a major war, whereas before that it had long positioned itself as neutral. Poland waited seven years to join, as did Hungary. Lithuania waited more than a decade, and Macedonia even longer because it had to add 'North' to its name before it was finally admitted to Nato.”

Hungary was and still is a good ally, the pro-government Magyar Nemzet stresses:

“There are endless articles portraying Hungary's prime minister as a man who belongs to Russia, who is blocking Nato's activities and paralysing the European Union. ... But then it turns out that they are giving Hungarian pilots more Swedish Gripen fighter aircraft to protect the region's airspace. ... Productive relations can only be maintained if you keep an eye on your own interests. ... Later, when it turns out that the country is not at all isolated and we emerge stronger from this most recent sham dispute, no one will want to admit that the government did the right thing.”