Midsummer crisis

The Midsummer crisis (Swedish: Midsommarkrisen) was a political crisis in Sweden after the beginning of Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941. Sweden's neutrality was tested when Nazi Germany and Finland demanded that Sweden allow the transit of the Wehrmacht's 163rd Infantry Division by railroad from Norway to Finland. After the 1939 German-Soviet invasion of Poland, Swedish prime minister Per Albin Hansson declared strict neutrality and called for the formation of a coalition government involving all major parties under his leadership; this was realized in December, with the exception of the Communist Party. With Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Ireland and the Vatican, Sweden maintained neutrality throughout World War II and cooperated with both sides. According to Winston Churchill, during the war Sweden ignored the greater moral issues and played both sides for profit (particularly in the German occupation of Denmark and Norway, supported by transportation through Sweden sanctioned by Hansson's cabinet).

Operation Barbarossa, the 22 June 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union, sparked an ultimatum by the government of Nazi Germany to Hansson's cabinet demanding military concessions (including German troop transports on Swedish railways to support German ally Finland). The political deliberations surrounding this ultimatum have become known as the "midsummer crisis", which (allegedly after King Gustav V's threat to resign if the concessions were not made) was resolved in favor of the Axis. Although the 83-year-old king had not directly intervened in government policy since 1914, Gustav had the formal power to appoint his own cabinet; his open intervention in the issue was seen as a threat to the stability of the government and, given the ongoing war, to the nation's sovereignty. However, according to research published in 2002 by Carl-Gustaf Scott "the crisis was created in historical hindsight in order to protect the political legacy of the Social Democratic Party and its leader Per Albin Hansson."

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