Finland’s president and prime minister say country should join Nato ‘without delay’

Finland’s president Sauli Niinistö and prime minister Sanna Marin have said ‘yes’ to a Finnish Nato application, kickstarting the process through which Finland and most likely Sweden will join the alliance.

In a joint press statement, Niinistö and Marin said that Nato membership “would strengthen Finland’s security” and that Finland’s membership would “strengthen the entire defence alliance”.

“Finland must apply for Nato membership without delay,” they continued.

“We hope that the national steps still needed to make this decision will be taken rapidly within the next few days.”

Swedish vocabulary: utan dröjsmål – without delay

Swedish parliamentary report on Nato due today

On Friday May 13th, the Swedish government’s ‘security policy analysis group’ is due to submit its own reassessment of Sweden’s security situation.

The reassessment was initially supposed to be submitted by May 31st, but on April 21st, the government accelerated the process. The Left and Green parties are unlikely to support the conclusions of the report.  

The report is not expected to state whether Sweden should join the alliance or not.

The Social Democrats will make an official statement on whether to join the alliance on Sunday, and an extra parliamentary meeting on Nato is scheduled for Monday.

Sweden will send an application to join the Nato alliance on Monday, tabloid Expressen reports, stating that the information comes from sources close to the newspaper.

According to the newspaper, Magdalena Andersson will call a governmental meeting where the decision of whether to join Nato or not will be made. Social Democrat leadership have stated that the question is still up for debate, but it is expected that the government will announce their intention to apply to join Nato.

Directly after this meeting, Expressen reports, Sweden will submit their application to join Nato.

Swedish vocabulary: ansökan – application

Sweden qualify for Eurovision final

Cornelia Jakobs, Sweden’s entry to the Eurovision Song Contest, burst into tears and jumped onto presenter Mario Acampas, after shooting through to the final on Thursday night.

Jakobs was emotional at the press conference after her qualification, telling the story of her progress from an “largely unknown” indie artist to the Eurovision stage.

“There are a lot of feelings right now in this little body, an extremely large amount of feelings that can’t really fit in, so they’re exploding,” she said, before beginning to cry. “But I’m so happy and overwhelmed by all the support I’ve got from all these fantastic countries.”

Jakobs, with her song, “Hold Me Closer”, was the clear favourite to go into the final, and will go through alongside Finland’s The Rasmus, and their song “Jezebel”, Serbia’s Konstrakta with “In Corpore Sano”, as well as entries from Belgium, Czechia, Azerbaijan, Poland, Estonia, Australia, and Romania.

In the final, she will meet the other favourites, which include Ukraine, Italy, and the United Kingdom.