In an election year, growing support for joining NATO is putting the center-left government of Prime Minister Stefan Löfven under pressure, with the four-party opposition bloc now united in backing membership of the military alliance for the first time. [...]
The country has already reintroduced military service, which was scrapped in 2010, for a limited number of draftees who will be called up for compulsory basic training this year. It has decided to station troops on the Baltic island of Gotland for the first time in a decade, and boosted military spending by 2.7 billion Swedish kronor (€274 million) a year from this year through 2020. [...]
At the same time, political support for NATO membership has been rising. In 2015, two center-right parties, the Center Party and the Christian Democrats, changed their minds on NATO and joined their opposition allies, the Moderate Party and the Liberal Party, in advocating membership.
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