Sweden: why the ‘moral superpower’ dissented over Covid-19

A global crisis breaks with a particular focus on Europe. Nearly all countries act in unison except for Sweden. The solo approach of the Scandinavian country sparks international headlines asking why it stands out from the crowd. It could be a description of Sweden’s now infamous response to coronavirus and how it has avoided the formal lockdowns that the rest of Europe adopted. But it is also an account of what happened during the 2015 migration crisis when it accepted more asylum applications than any other EU country relative to the size of its population. “It’s striking that Sweden has taken a very different path [from others] on two international crises in the past five years,” says Nicholas Aylott, associate professor of political science at Sodertorn University. “It is a case of true Swedish exceptionalism.”

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