Swedish exceptionalism leads to tension – The Swedes have out, many countries remain reluctant to open their borders for Sweden. The country has one of the highest Covid-19-mortality rates in Europe.Kai Strittmatter from Kopenhagen6 Kommentare6Die German should like to come to Sweden to stay but should be “where you are”: Denmark would prefer to not allow Sweden to his side of the Oeresund (26. May 2020).Francis Dean/Dean pictures/Imago Images

Sweden’s borders were always open. As of mid-March, many countries in Europe decided to close their borders, as Sweden remained an exception. But now, as the other countries go before the summer, careful to open their borders again, it looks as if, of all things, the Sweden would have to stay home. Some countries seem to want to let the citizens out of the country, with its relatively high infection and mortality rates rather not enter. Sweden’s foreign Minister, Ann Linde complained of a looming “discrimination”.

The action of the Minister, the decision of Cyprus to open the island from June to again for direct flights and tourists from 19 countries, including Swiss and Germans, but also Danes, Norwegians and Finns. As the only Scandinavians are not on the list: Sweden. In Finland, Minister Maria Ohisalo rejected last inside, the idea of a Nordic region with open borders, with reference to the “alarming Situation” in Sweden. In Norway, the representatives of the national health authority, said that open borders to Finland and Denmark were in order, but not to Sweden. And in Denmark, Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, head of the opposition liberal party said, the Germans are likely to want to come to Sweden to stay but should be “where you are”.

“We have chosen the path”

Sweden in the fight against the pandemic, more on Appeals and self-responsibility of citizens because of these restrictions. In terms of number of inhabitants, the mortality rate in Sweden at the Moment, four times as high as in Denmark and ten times as high as in Norway. The Stockholm newspaper “Dagens Nyheter” (DN) therefore wrote in a comment, the reactions of the other countries hurt ratings, although “very”, on the other hand, the lawsuit targets alleged discrimination into the Void: Cyprus does not lock the Swedes because they are Swedes, but because they come from a country with very high infection numbers, and they are treated the same as citizens of other such countries. “We have chosen the path,” writes DN. “Now, we must also be just.”

For debates on the borders, especially in relation to neighbours Denmark. In Sweden and in Denmark it should be since the “national sport, horrified by the stupidity of the neighboring country”, – said in an open letter three Swedish parliamentarians in the Danish newspaper Politiken. As the friendly banter it was okay, but in times of pandemic, and the string of the recession, this could prepare the populism and “hate” the way. A lack of understanding of the Danish policy meets Skane, especially in the southern Swedish Region, where the people in the Danish capital, Copenhagen is closer than Stockholm. Only one bridge, the öresund region separates the two sides of the border. In Skane but the infection numbers are far lower than in Stockholm and in Copenhagen. Still, however, only the Danes can’t travel freely over the bridge to Sweden, the Swedes, can the Vice-versa.

“expressions of love”

this long weekend, did so many Danes that the return traffic on Sunday, a six-kilometre-long traffic jam: Many of them were driven to their summer houses in Sweden, in Malmö, shopping or in the pub gone. The Swedish Deputy Niels Paarup-Petersen, himself of Danish descent, then, is of the “Danish hypocrisy”. Sweden’s Ambassador in Copenhagen, Fredrik Jörgensen, preferred a friendlier, more visual way: The Danes-a traffic jam on the bridge was also “an expression of the great love of Sweden”.

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