Last year, the defense budget was 61 billion.

An increase to 2 percent of gross domestic product, GDP, would mean an annual cost of SEK 108 billion.

- It is an extremely large investment and it can only be compared with investments in the defense during the 1950s, says Peter Hultqvist.

The Swedish defense budget has not been above 2 percent of GDP since the late 1990s.

The new giant investment will be implemented as soon as possible, says Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson (S).

But building up the defense will take time, Peter Hultqvist emphasizes.

- It takes many, many years.

We want to implement this in a systematic and realistic and feasible way.

We have to get the most out of every krona we go in with, he says.

More people will do military service

With the investment, more young people will need to do military service.

- In the long run, more young people need to prepare for military service and contribute to the military defense.

But this is also about civil defense, says Magdalena Andersson.

- It is about us building a national defense.

No schedule

However, the government does not want to set a time frame for when the budget will be up to the new target.

- These are large sums and it depends on which year we land on.

It will be backwards to land on the year before we have had to take part of the authorities' data on how fast it can happen and how much defense capability you get, says Minister of Finance Mikael Damberg (S).

Damberg also does not want to state where to collect the money and how large tax increases it could lead to.

From today's level, the investment would cost SEK 42 billion annually.

- We want a discussion with the other parties, he says.

Magdalena Andersson was asked why she did not want to invest so much in the defense before, given the security policy developments in recent years.

- If the government had been sitting still since 2014, it would have been serious, but fortunately that is not what we have done.

We have started the largest refurbishment since the 1950s and the message today is that we want to continue that refurbishment, says the Prime Minister.

Even before today's decision, the Riksdag had decided that defense investments would increase.

The plan was for defense spending to increase from SEK 66 billion in 2021 to SEK 91 billion in 2025.