Politico reports:

The prospects of Sweden and Finland joining NATO will ultimately be decided by how many people feel the same way as Peter Gustavsson.

A long-time Social Democrat lawmaker in the Swedish city of Uppsala who now edits a party newsletter in Stockholm, Gustavsson says Moscow’s decision to attack Ukraine has scrambled the security picture facing Russia’s neighbors and it is now time for Sweden to join the defense alliance.

“It is a whole new chapter,” Gustavsson said. “We need to reconsider how we position ourselves.”

Stalwart Social Democrats like Gustavsson — who started his political career in the party’s youth wing — are in sharp focus because they could hold the key to what happens next with NATO membership in both Sweden and Finland.

While center-right opposition parties in both countries swung behind joining the alliance — and its central concept of mutual defense — several years ago, Social Democrats in the two countries remained skeptical, blocking any move toward accession.

If the likes of Gustavsson back a U-turn on NATO in large numbers, that could give Sweden and Finland’s Social Democrat prime ministers a mandate for a once-in-a-generation remaking of security policy — if they choose it. [Continue reading…]