It was at the end of 2012 that Sverker Göransson stated that Sweden would only survive for a week in the event of an attack.

The statement struck like a bomb.

- I regret nothing.

It was a conscious choice.

The Swedish people are the ones who ultimately need to know which insurance premium we have chosen and this was my way of communicating with them, says Sverker Göransson today.

My first question is simple: how long can we survive today?

- It may not be ambiguous in that, but we are much better prepared today than when I left the Armed Forces.

"Eternal peace"

Today, the defense budget corresponds to 1.26 percent of GDP and in March, the government announced that the appropriation will increase to two percent.

It has not done so since the late 1990s.

According to Sverker Göransson, we in Sweden were long convinced that "eternal peace had come".

- In addition, we pushed for a while the thesis that Sweden is best defended away from home.

It can be stated that it was fundamentally wrong, but it takes time to change opinion.

Have we been naive?

- With the results in hand, you can always claim it.

At the same time, this type of analysis is not always so appealing to have on the table.

A lot has been pointed out by the Armed Forces, the Security Police and other authorities before, and it has really been the same theme all the time: developments in Russia are going in the wrong direction.

Unified defense policy

At the same time, Sverker Göransson thinks that it is clear that politics in general has agreed on defense issues.

- In my opinion, these are not issues that should be the subject of discussion in the election, but these elections that are absolutely crucial for our country's continued existence should preferably be made with a broad majority in Sweden's Riksdag and with clarity against the Swedish people.

How do you think defense policy has been handled over the last 30 years?

- I do not think that we as a country should have approved on this trip at all.

Now it is not a matter of allowing this to happen again, that is, we should not go back to zero when the next wave of consensus occurs.

That's probably the sum of the cardamom.