That's the problem, neither side can cave. If the unions cave it will destroy the image of the Swedish model. If Tesla caves it will open the doors for unions around the world to oppose them.
Either way this is a very interesting battle.
As a Swede of course I hope that Tesla caves.
One thing I cannot understand is people who are against worker's rights. Do they not understand that workers make up the majority of all people?
Because with the Russian subs just off the cost of Gotland things might get complicated.
Also, Finland is already complaining that Russia is weaponising immigrants, so much so that they've closed 7 out of 8 border posts they have with Russia (if I got the numbers right), and seeing how the problem of immigrants is a very delicate one for Sweden (and for many other Western countries generally speaking) the Swedish people holding the monopoly of violence might think twice when it comes to this trade unions issue.
> Because with the Russian subs just off the cost of Gotland things might get complicated.
What are you darkly hinting at here? Russia's not going to attack Sweden because Tesla can't get license plates, and NATO's not going to pick Musk over Sweden.
Are you suggesting that Tesla in some way controls the Russian military? I mean, as conspiracy theories go it has the benefit of being original, I suppose.
>Most probably the Swedes will cave in, after kindly being reminded that the >Russians are located just across the Baltic lake from them.
>Interesting to think what will Musk give to the DC people in exchange.
This is incredibly uninformed. Sweden is to important for NATO to care about helping Musk.
But if you want "informed" opinion, I've just gone through this series of studies: "Military Strategy in the 21st Century - The Challenge for NATO" [1], where on page no. 415 there's an essay titled "Military Strategy in Denmark" by a guy called Petter Viggo Jakobsen, Associate Professor at the Institute for Strategy at the Royal Defence College, while on page no. 433 there's another study titled "Norway's Military Strategy after the Cold War: Between Demise and Revival", by a guy named Tormod Heier, lieutenant colonel in the Norwegian Army and Professor in Political Science at the Norwgeian Defence University College. Both of those studies underline how both Norway's and Denmark's strategy deeply rely on the good-will of the United States.
Granted, Sweden is not Norway nor Denmark, but it's not De Gaulle's France either, so I suspect, based on my informed readings, that their military and defence strategy is closer to today's strategy of Norway and Denmark than to the military strategy espoused back in the 1960s by a country such as France (which could back then to say no to the Americans).
This made a lot of sense before the Ukraine war.
Russia doesn't have even 10k men to spare to start another "little victorious war" and won't for many years from now.
Let alone the simple facts that Russia doesn't even have a land border with Sweden and that its Baltic Fleet boasts a total of 1 (one) landing ship capable of reaching Swedish shores, and some 10 landing boats.
If Russia attacked Finland, Sweden and Norway at the same time it wouldn't be pleasant but Sweden would be last and least to suffer, and Russia just doesn't have anything at its disposal to commit to that at the moment.
There is no sense in assuming that Tesla is more important for Nato than a Swedish participation in Nato. And it is also wrong to equate striking workers to the swedish state. This is on par with authoritarian states not understanding that people have their own will in a dempcracy.
Geopolitical jokes are fun only if they are cleverly silly and not just uninformed.
It’s open secret Sweden has had secret security guarantees from US for decades (probably part of agreement that Sweden will not develop their own nuclear strike capability).
This is not something US would back out of on a whimsy.
And beyond that, the US would risk its relationship with at least the Baltics and Nordics as well, and possibly EU at large. You don’t fire off political ultimatums for a minor trade dispute if you’re not already prepared to sever relationships.
It’s not that Sweden is important in itself (though I’d like to think it is, as a swede), but this is a little bit like suggesting placing a Russian army base in South Dakota. South Dakotans being pissed would barely register compared to the reactions from the US beyond that.
