The beginning of the new millennium witnessed Sweden’s continued but gradual shift to the right and a departure from the political aloofness which had characterised its relation to the rest of Europe for decades. In September 2006, the Moderate Party led by Fredrik Reinfeldt (born 1965) gained the majority of votes by just 1 per cent, ousting the Social Democrats, to bring the country its third youngest prime minister. Fears that jobs might be put in jeopardy or that the Swedish welfare system might be undermined by a change of government obviously had made little headway with marginal voters. Now it remains to be seen to what degree the government’s policy to reduce the size of the social sector, employing some 30 per cent of the entire Swedish workforce, will be implemented. It also remains to be seen to what degree taxes, among the highest in Europe, will be reduced and the social welfare system streamlined, in particular, with respect to unemployment benefits, which threaten to undermine Swedish economic development. With unemployment running at 6 per cent, or 10 per cent, if people on sick leave and job training schemes are taken into account, the sums involved are considerable.

The new world order, almost a generation after the end of the Cold War, has brought new enemies. In consequence, Sweden’s almost two-century-old political and military neutrality has receded into the background. Osama Bin Laden’s statement that he had no bones to pick with Sweden did not prevent the country from supporting the war in Afghanistan against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, making it as vulnerable to Islamic extremism as any other. The admonitory example of Denmark, put in the firing line of Islamic fundamentalists because of a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad published in the Danish newspaper Jyllandsposten in 2005, brought home to Swedes new political realities and the dangers they entailed, were any further example needed.