Finland, not its larger neighbour Sweden, has taken the lead throughout the year-long application process to become Nato members. Now there are growing signs that Sweden could be left behind as Turkish opposition to Stockholm’s membership bid intensifies.
Sweden’s application is in trouble. The sight one weekend of an effigy of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hanging next to Stockholm’s city hall followed the next Saturday by the burning of a copy of the Koran in front of Turkey’s embassy in the Swedish capital has sparked anger in Ankara across the political spectrum.
Turkey has now explicitly said what many have long suspected: that it could approve Finland’s Nato application, and turn down Sweden’s. That raises big questions for the two Nordic countries as well as for Nato and even the US.