The Christian Democrats back a NATO application (2015)
At its national convention in October 2015, the Christian Democrats decided to work for Sweden joining NATO, dropping the country's long-standing line of military non-alignment. That made them the last of the four Alliance parties to take the position.
- Correction Security & defence KD At its 2015 riksting the Christian Democrats broke with Sweden's non-alignment line and decided to back applying for NATO membership, becoming the fourth Alliance party to do so.
Why this verdict?
KD's position had been Swedish non-alignment. At the 2015 riksting — the party's formal congress — KD voted explicitly to back a NATO membership application. A congress vote is the clearest form of mandate and warning: the change was decided and declared before any application was made.
For most of its history, the Christian Democrats shared the broad Swedish view that the country should stay out of military alliances. Sweden kept clear of formal pacts, and the party built its security policy on that footing.
The riksting on 9 October 2015 broke with it. Delegates decided the party would now work for Sweden to apply for NATO membership, dropping the non-alignment stance it had held until then.
That vote made the Christian Democrats the last of the four Alliance parties to back a NATO application. The other three had already moved; the Christian Democrats closed the gap.
SVT and Svenska Dagbladet covered the convention vote and read it as one more step in a sequence: the Alliance parties had been swinging toward membership one after another. For how we read a move like this, see how we read a value shift.
Related entities
On the values timeline
- 2009Energy · Once a champion of phasing out nuclear power, the Christian Democrats joined the 2009 Alliance government deal to scrap the ban on building new reactors.
- you are here2015Security & defence · At its 2015 riksting the Christian Democrats broke with Sweden's non-alignment line and decided to back applying for NATO membership, becoming the fourth Alliance party to do so.
- 2015Welfare & identity · Walked out of the cross-bloc pact built to contain the Sweden Democrats — the first crack in the wall.
- 2019Welfare & identity · In 2019 the Christian Democrats dropped their refusal to deal with the Sweden Democrats: the party board opened to talks with all Riksdag parties in March, and by December Busch Thor said KD was prepared to negotiate with SD on any issue.
- M2009The Moderates led the 2009 decision to suspend peacetime military conscription and move Sweden to a volunteer professional army.
- SD2012In 2012, Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Åkesson formally instated an official 'zero tolerance' policy against racism and extremism in the party, after years of extremist associations.
- C2022Dropped its earlier reservations and backed NATO membership.
- S2022Abandoned 200 years of non-alignment and led Sweden's NATO application.