Donald Trump’s aggressive tone towards his allies has left Swedish and other European leaders in a quandary: our countries’ economies and our militaries are deeply intertwined with those of the US. To put it more bluntly: Europe is deeply dependent on the Americans: Swedish companies’ data is stored in data centres owned by American tech companies; Swedish plans for its own defence against Russia depend on Nato, and Nato depends on the US.
Sweden and Europe have swallowed lopsided trade agreements, signed orders for US military kit, and trooped to the White House to pay homage to Donald Trump in the hope that flattery would make him more pliable. And leaders have bitten their tongues.
That strategy failed comprehensively. Far from winning Trump’s understanding, European leaders were forced to look on in horror as the leader of the free world threatened to invade the territory of another Nato member – Greenland, a Danish possession. Europe’s leaders had to accept that relations with the US might never truly recover and forge a new world order — and a new approach to the Americans. The time for shooting straight was here.
Canadian prime minister Mark Carney captured the moment in a grave, thoughtful speech to the politicos and plutocrats of Davos. “We are in the midst of a rupture,” he said. “Middle powers” would have to learn to act together to counter external threats and influence world affairs.
So what was the Swedish government’s take on the most serious crisis to hit the transatlantic alliance in living memory? In remarks that should have garnered more attention, Sweden’s prime minister Ulf Kristersson appeared to raise the prospect of Sweden buying into France’s nuclear weapons programme.
But shooting straight is an art, and consensus-seeking Sweden is not always a straight-talking culture. So it fell to deputy prime minister Ebba Busch to capture the thoughts of Swedes – and some people further afield. Instead of tip-toeing around Trump, she tackled him head on: “It’s time for him to calm down,” she said in one of a series of memorable interviews with American and British media.
Deploying her distinct American-Swedish twang, Busch also lectured Trump on the folly of attacking his allies:
Weakening Nato will make us vulnerable to Russia and China, Busch said. Trump was talking to us “like Greta Thunberg was running the European Union”.
In her most widely remarked-upon comment, she seemed to take another dig at Donald Trump’s social media incontinence while also appearing to usurp her boss Ulf Kristersson:
“If you make a deal with the Swedish Busch administration, that’s a handshake you can trust. I’m not going to change my policy tomorrow in a new tweet.”
Nobody could accuse Busch of lacking chutzpah.
Sweden’s nominal prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, tried hard to look unbothered - it was “jättekul” - very amusing, he said.
A real ‘Swedish Busch administration’ is highly unlikely (it’s fun for commentators to speculate that she could emerge as a compromise prime minister in a coalition, but the idea is a tad recherché). The role of deputy PM is vaguely defined and Busch arguably speaks well beyond her brief. Still, her title gives her some kind of seniority and an outsized influence for the leader of a party that won just 5 percent of the vote at the last election.
Busch’s policy record is hardly awe-inspiring — her flagship idea of building more nuclear power hasn’t advanced very far in three years.
But Busch’s asset isn’t policy: she succeeds because she shoots straight and skillfully produces soundbites that fly in a 30-second TikTok or Instagram reel. Depressingly trivial? Perhaps, but mastering the medium of the moment has always been a vital political skill. And it’s working for Busch: her approval rating of about 40 percent puts her in the same league as Kristersson, Social Democrat Magdalena Andersson and Sweden Democrat Jimmie Åkesson, all of whom lead far bigger parties.
Swedish politics is not over-endowed with big personalities or communicators who cut through in today’s media environment. Busch is both of these, and the past weeks have shown that she knows how and when to assert Sweden’s interests — in Swedish and in English — when communicating on extremely complex global issues. That’s a talent Sweden could use.
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