Swedish military readies to protect Reinfeldt

The Swedish government has upped security for the government buildings at Rosenbad in Stockholm and soldiers are getting ready to protect the government offices against potential terrorist attacks or war.

• More Swedes in favour of joining Nato: poll (16 May 13)
• Russia 'lacks capacity' to attack Sweden: Reinfeldt (14 May 13)
• Government locks horns with opposition over jobs (6 May 13)

“The plan for how to protect the government has been lying dormant for a number of years. Now we are resuming the protection of the government offices,” said the head of the Life Guards, Stefan Jägerhult, to newspaper Metro.

The military has so far been lacking a plan of how to protect the government in case of a terrorist attack or an act of war by a foreign nation. However, the Swedish Armed Forces have now applied for permission to have officers carry out a reconnaissance mission around the Swedish government offices at Rosenbad and other key government buildings.

Security was tightened at the government buildings on Monday, according to Metro. Previously it was possible to access reception areas of the different ministries, but now the doors will remain locked.

At the government offices, they are not willing to discuss the tightened security but confirmed to Metro that stricter rules on ID control have been implemented. The guards at the government offices also confirmed a tightening of security but said they hadn’t been informed as to why this was necessary.

The reconnaissance mission, scheduled for October, will be carried out by plain clothes officers.

“We are going to practice how we would act if something were to happen. It isn’t just terrorist attacks but we are looking at all sorts of scenarios,” said Jägerhult.

However, political scientist Stig-Björn Ljunggren told the paper that the protection of the government offices traditionally has been resting with the police, but that the threat has changed:

“There is no longer a distinction between enemies from within and enemies from outside of Sweden. Today there are enemies that can strike on the home ground and then the military can be deployed. Police and military have similar assignments today,” Ljunggren told Metro.

The Local/rm
twitter.com/thelocalsweden