Discovering Europe
The Swedish paradox
© Marie-Martine Buckens
Stockholm is at the crossing point of the cobalt blue waters of the Mälaren Lake and the ink black waves of the Baltic Sea. Seven centuries ago, Stockholm was erected here, spreading out over 14 islands linked together by forty or so bridges. It was only in 1637 that the city became Sweden’s capital, dethroning Uppsala, which remains the university and ecclesiastic capital of the country.
Stockholm, a feast for the eyes… Each island – starting from the historic centre Gamla Stan, the “Old City” – presents a specific architectural ensemble with its very own charm. However, Stockholm would be nothing without the Stockholmers, who have always been somewhat more hurried than their rural neighbours. There are more than one million Stockholmers, a figure that doubles if we take into account the greater city, over a population of 9 million.
They are more demanding in their egalitarian and democratic claims too. These claims go back to the Vikings, the conquering people that, in the 10th century, went to the East and established trading relations with Byzantium and Arab kingdoms. The Swedes – and all other Scandinavians – are proud to evoke their ancestors. Historian Astrid Helle explains: “It is not so much for the military victories and conquests that the heirs of the Vikings enjoy evoking that page of their history. Rather, they find in the Viking civilisation – an entrepreneurial people with an original culture – the roots of what they so enjoy in today’s society: a lively democracy in a deeply egalitarian society. Women enjoyed much consideration and a legal status that could have been the envy of many other Europeans. Viking women could marry the men they wanted even without their fathers’ consent. They were entitled to bear some weapons and could also become poets, a trade that was synonymous with great social recognition.” Astrid Lindgren must have thought of this when she wrote Pippi Longstocking…
Traders, egalitarians and poets… To this list of assets, we shall add pragmatism (a corollary of commere it is true) and openness to modernity, innovation, and to the world, to the countries wounded by this very same modernity. Two areas – innovation and cooperation – where Sweden comes in first place. Paradox? Like so many others in Sweden.
