Analysis: Löfven draws a dark picture of the situation

Prime Minister Stefan Löfven wants to further sharpen the gravity of the situation in SVT Aktuell's interview. The public must expect that it will take a long time before the crisis is over. It's about months, not weeks, he emphasizes.

For this reason, he also announces that he has decided to cancel his participation in the Almedals Week in Visby in late June and early July. The signal is that everyone must expect to live with the corona crisis for a long time to come, even over the summer.

He also warns that further restrictions and prohibitions may come if the spread of infection becomes worse. Right now, the spread of infection is increasing and no one knows for sure when the curves can face down.

For Stefan Löfven, it is about preparing the public that the worst is still ahead of us. More people will fall ill and more will die, he says in the interview. But it is also about creating and maintaining understanding and acceptance of the prohibitions, advice and recommendations issued by the government and the authorities and may be issued in the future.

So far, the Swedish strategy has been supported by the large majority of the general public. Confidence is rushing for the health service and the Public Health Authority. Stefan Löfven himself and the government have also greatly strengthened their confidence among voters, according to Novus.

But the corona crisis is far from over and neither Stefan Löfven nor anyone else can predict how it will develop in the future. The government and the authorities will be forced to continue making difficult decisions and balances. The fact that the public has so far shown great confidence in the government's actions so far is no guarantee that future decisions will be received in the same way.

Should the disease situation worsen in Sweden, the criticism is also likely to rise because the government has chosen a path that is more about recommendations and advice than sharp prohibitions. Several epidemiologists, as well as foreign assessors, have warned of the path Sweden has chosen.

Should Sweden be more severely affected by the virus than other countries that have imposed more severe restrictions, the criticism could ultimately be great against both Löfven and his government. But here the prime minister turns away in the interview. He dismisses the question as speculative and does not even want to talk about it. The evaluation should be done afterwards, not now, he says on a couple of occasions when he is pressed in the interview.

With regard to the Swedish preparedness, or rather the shortcomings in the preparedness, the Prime Minister also has an unexpected defensive attitude.

Most assessors today agree that Swedish governments and parliament over the years have gone far too far in destroying the Swedish preparedness.

But here Löfven does not breathe the least of self-criticism, despite being prime minister and thus having the ultimate responsibility since 2014. It appears both tone deaf and nonchalant by the prime minister.

In the interview, Stefan Löfven is not prepared to take any responsibility for the shortcomings that have now emerged. Instead, he refers to the government's national security strategy of 2017, which is a comprehensive strategy and only to a limited extent addresses the problems exposed during the corona crisis.

To acknowledge the problem at all would not be strange to the prime minister. In fact, over the years, both social democratic and bourgeois governments have been instrumental in destroying the Swedish preparedness.

After the end of the Cold War and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Swedish politicians seemed to have decided that the future would not contain either war or serious crises. The military defense was greatly reduced, which politicians have recently tried to correct through new efforts. But after the end of the Cold War, most of the civilian defense, as well as emergency stockpiles of food, oil, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, were wound up.

Although the prime minister today does not want to discuss these shortcomings or the political decisions that led to them, he will be forced to do so when the emergency crisis is over.

Strengthening Swedish preparedness for sudden crises will be an important political issue in the debate that will follow the corona crisis.