Sweden: Abba star: Germany must be “driving power”

ABBA star Björn Ulvaeus remembers the feeling of the political situation during the Cold War. “Russia is very close – practically towards the Baltic Sea,” replied the 79 -year -old Swede in a “Spiegel” interview when asked whether he felt threatened by Russia. The then Soviet Union “invincible” in his youth. “The feeling of threat was very real. And now it is again,” said Ulvaeus.

As a young man, he often thought: “What do I do when we are occupied? What would I do, would I go to resistance, would I have the courage?” The entrepreneur, who will be 80 next Friday, said “Fortunately” he never had to decide. “I could never have imagined living under the communist yoke.”

“Friedrich Merz is the hope of Europe at the moment.”

The musician looks at political developments with concern. “Every reasonable person should be aware of the danger in which we are currently,” he said. “We have taken our freedom for too long. It is currently becoming a world in which these freedoms are in question. In which autocraties are also possible again in Europe.”

Ulvaeus referred to the agony war of Russia to Ukraine, the war in Middle East and the tensions about Taiwan and China. With the change of government in Germany, the musician combines great hopes. Germany is “the most important economic power in Europe,” he said. “You have to be the driving force now.” Many Europeans would hope for that. Accordingly, Ulvaeus said about the CDU’s designated Chancellor: “Friedrich Merz is the hope of Europe at the moment.”