På svenska.

On the 13th of December 1939 presented Prime Minister P. A. Hansson in the second Chamber of the Parliament, and Minister of education and ecclesiastical affairs Bagge in the first Chamber the following declaration of the government:

Mr. Chairman! As the King has today appointed a new Cabinet, it wishes to present in front of the Chamber the following declaration: In view of the international situation and the strain it has brought also to our people it has been considered to be the right time to put together, following throughts that were already previously discussed, a coalition in which representatives of all the significant directions of opinions can take part and bear responsibility in governing the country. This way we manifest in- and outwards our national unity on the present primary tasks in the Swedish policy.

The coalition government will follow Sweden's known and documented intention to create trust and respect to our people's will to independence and neutrality. This intention includes also cooperation with neutral states' other allianses for protection of neutral states' common interests as well as maintaining and expanding the Nordic cooperation.

The calamities that has now fallen upon Finland have deeply touched the Swedish people. Its spontaneous and widely spread will to give humanitarian and material aid animates the Cabinet, too. A prerequisite for coalition government's work is that domestic political differences of opinions are set aside. The time now calls a unified coalition in matters of importance of which the continued defensive preparedness and securing the national food supplies are the most dominating ones.

The coalition government expects that all layers of the people are prepared to give it their support in the task of leading our country through present difficulties and by maintaining peace and freedom. It is a national duty for each one of us to observe the necessary restraint in our statements and deeds so that the work of the responsibility bearing state government shall not be obstructed or jeopardized.
Source: Svensk utrikespolitik under andra världskriget. Internationell politik 24, skrifter utgivna av Utrikespolitiska institutet, Kooperativa förbundets bokförlag, Stockholm, 1946. (Swedish Foreign Policy under the Second World War, Stockholm, 1946). Translation: Pauli Kruhse

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