When the Social Democratic government submitted the NATO application last spring, it was with the promise to keep nuclear weapons and permanent bases outside the country's borders.
Something that the Moderates then stood behind.
But after Commander-in-Chief Micael Bydén said that Sweden should initially have no reservations regarding nuclear weapons, the government seems to have turned the issue around.
- Sweden and Finland have started this process hand in hand with the membership application and then we think it is reasonable that we have the same approach in these two factors, says Defense Minister Pål Jonson (M).
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson also thinks that Sweden and Finland should be followed on the issue, he announced this during a press conference in connection with the Nordic Council meeting in Helsinki.
"The government must clarify"
But the statement splits the previously united NATO line in Swedish politics.
Morgan Johansson, foreign policy spokesperson for the Social Democrats, is critical of the swing.
- Sweden has said that we would have a reservation that said we did not want nuclear weapons on Swedish soil.
It was a very important message to the Swedish people this spring and I think that message should stand firm.
The government must make it clear that what was said then to the Swedish people also applies now, he says.
V directs criticism
Håkan Svenneling (V), foreign policy spokesperson for the Left Party, also thinks that Sweden should have reservations about nuclear weapons and military bases.
- That Kristersson now embraces the possibility of nuclear weapons on Swedish soil is irresponsible.
Nuclear weapons pose risks for Sweden and make the world more insecure.
Several NATO countries have exceptions to having nuclear weapons on their soil, and of course Sweden should also have such an exception, he writes in an SMS to SVT.