Towering over a busy roundabout in downtown Stockholm is a bronze statue of King Gustav II Adolph on his horse. Almost 400 years after Gustav II conquered northern Europe, Sweden’s foreign minister, Margot Wallstrom, is shaking up the world not with weapons, but words, in an ornate yellow building just across the street. Since taking her post in October last year, the veteran Social Democratic politician has recognised the Palestinian state, denounced Saudi Arabia’s “medieval” floggings and adopted a “feminist foreign policy” that includes calling for a halt to sexual violence against women in war.

Now, as desperate migrants trek towards Sweden, and neighbouring EU countries balk at accepting refugees, Wallstrom, a former EU commissioner, insists that the rest of Europe must join Sweden and Germany in shouldering the burden. “We have to find solidarity and help each other out. We have to share responsibility for the refugees based on our shared values?.?.?.?If one country is putting up a fence, and another is opening up, this is not sustainable,” she says.

There is little hint of the crisis on a sunny afternoon in the rooms of the foreign ministry, which looks on to the Royal Opera, bridges and blue waters beyond. Wallstrom, 60, who is softly spoken in person, greets visitors at the door of a red-silk-themed room of the Prince Royal’s Palace. “It’s an old palace from the 1600s?.?.?.?Sophia Albertina, sister of Gustav III, bought it in 1783,” says Wallstrom, leading the way into the Blue Salon with its display of 18th-century furniture. “They’ve tried to restore the covers with the original patterns,” she says, noting that the royal bedroom where she keeps her desk was the princess’s sewing room. “She would sit with her maids, and make the wall tapestries. I can well imagine that she’s sitting sewing when I am at my desk.”