Iran Press/ Europe: Protests against Sweden hosting a large international military exercise and the country striving to become a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) were held in 17 cities across the country on Saturday.
Several organizations and networks such as the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society, No NATO, No to Nuclear Weapons, and political parties organized the events. Hundreds participated in the protest in Stockholm alone.
Placards and banners with messages such as "No to NATO", "NATO's war will get our children killed for a dollar," and "Stop Aurora 23" -- referring to an ongoing military exercise with 26,000 participants mainly from NATO member states currently hosted by Sweden -- were seen as the protesters moved through the city.
A majority of Swedes have traditionally been negative towards joining NATO, but this changed following the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in February 2022.
Sweden dropped its decades-long policies of military non-alignment and applied to join NATO last May, when a poll showed that opinion had shifted to a majority of Swedes, about 53 percent, being pro-NATO. And a poll conducted by Statistics Sweden last November showed that 67.8 percent Swedes were quite or very positive about NATO.
However, many Swedes are still concerned about the consequences of their country being a member of the military alliance. Partly because Russia had made it clear that "there can be no more talk of any nuclear-free status for the Baltics" should Sweden, and Finland, join NATO.
According to Xinhua, on March, 22, the Swedish parliament, Riksdagen, voted in favor of the country to join NATO, but so far, NATO members Hungary and Türkiye have yet to give a green light to Sweden's accession.
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