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Maybe this is just my dumb American in me speaking, but is this really a good way of going about as a "source"? I wouldn't* trust the average American's understanding of American economics as a "source". It's possible that Americans are just dumber than the average European, but I doubt Sweden is just completely devoid of ignorant people.

Not trying to call you ignorant (I don't know you), but I don't know that Swedish citizenship is a source in itself.

EDIT: Corrected "would" with "wouldn't".

I am Finnish and neither is there any decisive public information in here either.

You should trust SWE and FI journalism on this matter first and foremost before external sources.

Of course there are discussions that are not public. But it would be quite the outrage if the official information was made public in a non SWE or FI source.

Generally Nordic societies are fairly egalitarian. NATO membership would be a major shift and it would be discussed in public as soon as the definitive decision was done. Of course this is they way the wind is blowing but it's not official until SWE and FI state officials say it's so.

The way I see it, the public discussion has been going on in Finland since February 24. The effective decision to join was probably made last month, and it will be made formal when the time is right. There is currently more uncertainty about whether NATO would accept Finland than whether Finland would want to join it. To avoid provoking Russia unnecessarily, Finland won't make the formal decision to apply until it's clear that NATO will accept it.
There's a press release, if you prefer it.

https://www.socialdemokraterna.se/nyheter/nyheter/2022-04-11...

Let me summarize the press release for you: "We will talk about it internally in the political party".

In other words, the submitted article is just bullshit.

I'm not Swedish and can't easily read Swedish.

There's an article in the most-respected British newspaper, articles in English-language Swedish newspapers and an original press release providing a primary source for part of the news (I assume there were interviews or similar as it was announced).

> The Social Democrat general secretary, Tobias Baudin, said the security review would be complete “before the summer”.

(From another article as I'm not a Times subscriber.)

If you won't believe quotes from senior politicians in major newspapers I can't help you.

I live in Sweden. He said that the chats will be done in summer [1], not that Sweden will _join_ NATO in summer. I can't see what being a major British newspaper has anything to do with the veracity of Swedish news, and besides, when has journalists not blown crap out of proportion for clicks? What a weird hill to die on...

https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/s-drar-i-gang-natodebatt-...

The security review you mentioned is actually called a ”säkerhetspolitisk dialog” by Tobias himself. Directly translated ”säkerhetspolitisk dialog” means "security-political dialogue", and the dialogue it refers to is an internal dialogue within the social democratic party.

Nothing is decided yet, and although it is a lot more likely to happen now than a week ago the foreign sources make it sound like a decision has been made. If that was the case it would be headline news in all the swedish newspapers.

And the "security review" that will be completed "before summer" has already yielded results, and the results are 100% in favor of one possible outcome?

I read an article a few months back about a Swedish town that prepares itself as a place for storing nuclear waste for the next 10000 years. The one thing I remember from that article is that it took 18 years to start building the facility. I get that desperate times and so on, but I think deciding something huge on a timeline this tight is not very probable.

EDIT: actually, storage meant for 100_000 years! Here: https://www.dw.com/en/sweden-approves-plans-for-forsmark-nuc...

Without context, that quote means nothing.

I would be very careful making statements like this as if you knew how to interpret that quote from that exact person and party he represents.

Yes, and I can read Swedish and understand enough of our politics to say that the press release for the most part contradicts the linked article.

Will we join NATO? Still not decided but moves from S and SD has made it seem quite likely. Before summer? Very unlikely, discussions in Sweden have just started.

This is not reliable information. Source: Sweden set to join NATO https://mobile.twitter.com/shashj/status/1514181898456555531
The headline “set to” here means they could. Or “things are pointing in the direction that…” or “multiple signs seem to indicate that…”, or similar. Nothing strange in this reporting at all.