The closure of borders to stop the spread of coronavirus might have done fundamental damage to Nordic relations
STOCKHOLM — When Finland shut its border with Sweden to stop the spread of coronavirus, it felt to Swedish lawmaker Ida Karkiainen like a throwback to the Cold War.
In Sweden’s wooded western districts, where shopping malls built to serve Norwegian day-trippers stand empty, and in quiet Stockholm souvenir shops set up to target ferries from Finland, a realization is dawning: Maybe hassle-free travel between Nordic states for all citizens can no longer be taken for granted.
“Many decision-makers both in the private sector and the public sector feel betrayed by the border closure,” said Philip Sandberg, mayor of the southern Swedish town of Lund, half an hour’s drive from the bridge to Denmark. “It is hard to trust in continued integration in the future when we have seen that things can change so much from one day to the next,” he told POLITICO.
Sweden’s relaxed approach to fighting the virus — it left schools, businesses and borders open — has worried its neighbors who have watched with concern as the Swedish death rate from Covid-19 hasNow, as the immediate threat of Covid-19 begins to recede, officials across capitals are facing up to the damage done to Nordic relations, firstly by Sweden’s insistence on pursuing its own approach and then by its neighbors’ insistence on banning Swedes from their territory.
“We have to be honest and say that this is a difficult thing for the Nordic region,” she told reporters.Nordic Passport Union
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