Stockholm was once dead in the centre of a mighty empire that stretched from the west coast of Norway to the shores of Russia’s Lake Ladoga.

For the Sweden of 400 years ago, the focus was as much to the the east — to Swedish Finland, to Gotland, and to what is now Estonia — as it was west to the German port of Lübeck, the main buyer of the iron being produced in growing quantities in mines in Uppland. 

Blessed with one of the best natural harbours in the Baltic, its entry tightly guarded by the fort at Vaxholm, Stockholm imposed a vice-like grip on trade in the entire Bothnian Sea, and as a result over much of the Eastern Baltic. 

But if you look at Scandinavia today, Stockholm is on the periphery. 

At least that’s the case made in an article in the Göteborgs-Posten newspaper this week, which claims, rather provocatively, that Gothenburg has the best claim to be Capital of Scandinavia (as Stockholm markets itself). 

Stockholm, the paper argues, is now “an outpost on the Scandinavian peninsula”, both poorer and less well-connected to Europe than its rivals Copenhagen and Oslo. 

Arguably, the newspaper’s article is little more than a cynical play for easy clicks in the summer quiet period (something we would never stoop to) but might they have a point?  

Stockholmers would point to their city’s superior size (it has almost twice the population of Gothenburg), its greater antiquity and its long history as the capital of Sweden. But that’s exactly what Gothenburgers would expect their snooty northern rivals to say. So what’s the case for Gothenburg?

1. Gothenburg is better connected to the the rest of Scandinavia and to Europe

Gothenburg is almost equidistant from Copenhagen and Oslo, with about 300km travel to each city. Making it Sweden’s capital  would mark a major step forward towards creating a unified Scandinavian region, and Danish and Norwegian businesses would increasingly find Sweden’s new capital the natural place to go for meetings, conferences, and deal-making. 

The city is historically far more cosmopolitan than Sweden’s current capital. The city council as far back as 1641 had four Swedish, three Dutch, three German, and two Scottish members. William Chalmers, a Gothenburg-born Scot, made a fortune as a director of the Swedish East India Company, and donated much of it to the city, founding both the Sahlgrenska Hospital and the Chalmers Institute of Technology. 

2. Gothenburg is further from the front line in a conflict with Russia 

Europe has not seemed closer to a major conflict since the build-up to the Second World War. Germany’s defence minister Boris Pistorius warned in January that Russia could attack a Nato country, sparking a major conflict, within five to eight years. Sweden’s Minister for Civil Defense, Carl-Oskar Bohlin, has also warned that “war could come to Sweden.”

Should this happen, Stockholm looks exposed.

Not only is it facing onto the Eastern Baltic, likely to be one of the main theatres of a Nato-Russia conflict, but its supply lines are weak. Gothenburg, on the other hand, will become the chief supply post to the Nordic region in such a conflict, the port to which troops and supplies flow in from the US and Western Europe before being sent onward to the front line. 

When Sweden was a militarily non-aligned country, having a capital in Stockholm made sense. But now the country has joined Nato, its alliances are across the North Sea to the UK, and across the Atlantic to the US. It’s time for Sweden to look west. 

3. Gothenburg is an industrial city at a time of industrial transformation 

The internet-driven tech boom of the past two decades has favoured Stockholm, with the city spawning tech giants like Spotify, Skype, Minecraft, Klarna, King, Voi, and Trustly.

Arguably though, the big business story of the next two decades will be Green Industrial Transition, the transformation of heavy industries like metals and mining, shipping, and auto manufacturing away from fossil fuels.   

As home to traditional industrial giants like the car manufacturer Volvo, the ball-bearings company SKF, to Sweden’s shipping industry, and to the country’s two largest oil refineries, the Gothenburg region is the natural place from which to lead this development. 

Switching Sweden’s capital to Gothenburg would send a signal that Sweden takes its industry, and its necessary green transformation, seriously. 

4. Making Gothenburg the capital would rebalance Sweden  

For the past century, politicians in Stockholm have again and again put their own city first when it comes to infrastructure, splashing money on an express rail connection between Stockholm and Copenhagen, while the rail lines up the west coast to Gothenburg, and between Gothenburg and Oslo have remained embarrassingly poor. 

Politicians have favoured Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport over Gothenburg’s Landvetter, investing heavily in a failing battle to prevent Copenhagen becoming the main Scandinavian hub. 

Shifting the capital to Gothenburg would end this imbalance, and Sweden as a whole would be better interconnected as a result. 

5. Gothenburgers don’t take themselves too seriously 

Swedes are sometimes accused of not having a sense of humour, but this may largely reflect the fact that the culture of Stockholm and Uppsala has long been so dominant. 

Gothenburgers are renowned in Sweden for their Göteborgsvits, the punning wordplay they indulge in. This is a city whose inhabitants do not take themselves quite as seriously as their more reserved and ponderous countrymen to the east. 

Switching Sweden’s capital to Gothenburg would help raise the profile of this more banter-loving strand of Swedishness, which in turn would help improve Sweden’s relations with other countries where humour is similarly prized.