A very welcome visitor LOOMING American military strikes in Syria and controversy about American internet spying could not dampen the Swedish government’s excitement over the visit of America’s president, Barack Obama, to Sweden on September 4th. “Happy to see the sun is shining as President Obama approaches Stockholm,” tweeted Carl Bildt, the foreign minister, shortly before Air Force One, the presidential plane, landed at the Arlanda airport near Stockholm.The 24-hour stopover en route to a G20 summit in St Petersburg is Sweden’s first-ever bilateral visit by a sitting American president and a feather in the cap for Fredrik Reinfeldt, the prime minister, and his centre-right coalition. The Swedish media have been frantic for weeks about the visit, which public-service television broadcast live during most of Mr Obama’s stay.Few Europeans are as influenced by American culture as Swedes, who took to blue jeans, hamburgers and house music with gusto. Yet official relations between the two countries have not always been cordial. In 1972, when the then prime minister, Olof Palme, compared American…
The Economist: Europe
