Military training of civilians in Rinkaby (Sweden), April 2, 2022. REBECKA UHLIN FOR “DIE WELT”
On December 31, 2022, there were 404,218, up 16% from June. Professional soldiers and reservists, civil servants, bus drivers or childminders, all received their “war assignment”. If Sweden is attacked, they know what is expected of them. Like the public television and radio staff notified in October, most of them will continue to work in positions considered critical to the functioning of society. Others are chosen based on their specific skills.
Everyone is asked for discretion. Because it is about the country’s civil defense, in full resurgence, after a long hiatus of almost three decades in which “we wanted to believe in eternal peace”, ironically Marinette Nyh Radebo, responsible for communications with the Swedish Armed Forces Personnel Agency. This organization keeps the attribution registers and ensures that there is no duplication of work. “When the police sent us their lists, we found that several thousand peacekeepers were reservists,” says Nyh Radebo.
Mobilization is just beginning. By way of comparison, in 1992 the country, which then had a population of 8.5 million (up from 10 million today), could requisition 2.2 million for its civil defense, in addition to a million conscriptions into the army. Escape was also out of the question for the other residents aged 16 to 70 without a job: they had to continue their work and were mobilized by the national employment agency.
“Very serious security situation”
This defense duty, forgotten at the end of the 20th century, was remembered for the 121,500 young Swedes who celebrated their 16th birthday in 2022. The Civil Protection Board (MSB) sent them a letter to inform them that they were now part of the kingdom’s “total defence” and had “an obligation to render assistance in the event of war or danger of war”.
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This concept returned to the top of the political agenda in Sweden in 2015, a year after Russia annexed Crimea. The invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 “gave it a whole new dimension,” testifies Marcus Björklund, head of planning for Scania Prefecture in the south of the country. The proof: for the first time since 1947, the kingdom has a civil defense minister alongside the army minister.
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