This Week in Brexitland Extra, A View From Europe: How do the remaining EU member states see post-Brexit Britain? Part 4

SWEDEN

Sweden has long been amongst the more Eurosceptic members of the European Union. They have not taken up the Euro and it does not appear like they will do so anytime soon. This works alongside the Swedes’ independent nature. Until Putin’s ill-conceived invasion of Ukraine, Sweden were not only not members of NATO, but majority opinion in the country was that they would never join the military alliance.

This makes Sweden interesting through the lens of Brexit and of course, whether Britain could or would ever rejoin the single market and the EU full stop. While looking for countries that would follow Britain out the door, the right-wing British tabloids have often picked out the Swedes as a running possibility. I recall The Daily Express running articles on “Swexit” in 2016 as a matter of course.

Of course, Sweden remains in the European Union as we speak. Given all this as the backdrop, what was the actual reaction in Sweden to Britain voting to Leave in 2016?

“I remember the day quite vividly,’ said Fredrik Erixon, a Swedish economist and writer who has been the Director of the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE) ever since its start in 2006. “It was Summer’s Eve in Sweden, which is the closest we get to a national day. It’s usually a day of many festivities and people get awfully drunk. We were going to a party that was cancelled because of the Brexit vote. People just didn’t feel up for it after learning the result.”