A little blog about Swedish politics, in English
Do you smoke? Do you sometimes sit or stand outside your fave hang, alternately shivering/enjoying the sun to have a smoke? You know it’s bad for you, but..?
You may smoke outside no more. Starting Monday, smoking is forbidden both inside and outside restaurants and other public places, like outside subway platforms. Even smoking water pipes and vaping is forbidden in public places.
So far, you can still have at it in private. But as everyone knows, our private spheres are shrinking bit by bit.
Another controversial figure returned to the editorial page of SvD, after a break to write a book. (Is it done??) Arpi is another figure that is not afraid to take the heat for questioning Sweden’s immigration policies – or, if he is afraid, goes ahead and does it anyway. Ivar’s main point is one of scale: the number of new immigrants, most of whom come from cultures that don’t have much in common with Sweden’s, to the number of ”landed Swedes”, is a ratio that leads to problems. He also rails against the fact that saying that aloud and in public makes a lot of people want to tar, feather and run him out of town. These screaming people he says, need to take it down a notch: They are actually in the minority.
No one in Sweden wants to actually belong to a minority (not when it comes down to it) so he can expect more pushback – and likely more support as well.
After a fairly intensive campaign period, today is the day Nyamko Sabuni is formally chosen to be the Liberal Party’s new party leader. What she’ll now do though is somewhat unclear, in particular as she has said that immediate withdrawal from the January Agreement her predecessor Jan Björklund signed is not (at all) the first thing on her agenda. As Integration minister, Sabuni raised hackles for daring to suggest a certain level of Swedish might be a good requirement for citizenship. She also expressed a positive attitude towards forbidding veils in schools. For both these suggestions she was called many uncomplimentary names, but she failed to budge on her opinions. It is precisely that straight spine that many of her followers appreciate (as long as they agree, naturally).
Isabella Löwengrip, the early influencer and entrepreneur also known as Blondinbella, has a company. Actually, she has a whole slew of them, in various degrees of wildly successful: The woman is remarkable. Maybe it’s because being recognized is such a huge part of her success, and that control over your image is so key, that she wants to install face recognition technology in her stores. If you find that slightly creepy don’t worry, the Swedish Data Inspection Authority (Datainspektion) is on the case. If Löwengrip wants to be able to recognize customers – big buyers? People who carry voluminous bags? – she’ll have to argue her case as to why she’s an exception. It’s unsure whether her approximately 1.5 million followers will be keen.
The huge pension fund AMF, which is jointly owned by the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) and the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Svensk Näringsliv)is investing 740 million kronor in the battery factory Northvolt, up north in Skellefteå. This means that a fair chunk of workers’ pensions are being invested in a company where barely a spade has been lifted. AMF says it’s just a part of their risk portfolio, which has got to mean they’re prepared to lose it. On the one hand, batteries are desperately needed and the sooner Northvolt’s finances are in order and they’re up and running, the better. On the other hand, a lot of money is going into a technology that everyone agrees has got to get a lot better fast, and factories aren’t known for adjusting quickly. It’s also assuming there isn’t a small quantum leap on the horizon, something which everyone is basically hoping for when what we’ve got now is pretty unsatisfactory. So, yup, a pretty risky investment that we really really hope works out.
It turns out the weak krona isn’t so popular with businesses after all. SvD writes that only 1 business in 5 thinks it’s helping them, while nearly half of the responding companies say it’s negative for them. Production costs over the years have moved production out of Sweden, which means an increase in imports before exporting again: The weak krona makes these imports expensive. It’s not just people buying fruit at the local ICA that are dismayed by the exchange rate. Will the Swedish Fed notice?
Especially if you can’t find it. The pill, THAT pill, and at least one of the brands, will be out of stock until at least the end of the summer, wrote SvD today. Another hormone replacement therapy pill (for the more mature woman’s needs one might say) is also out of stock for at least the next few months. (Also pregnancy prevention pills for cats are out of stock, though I am not comparing.)
That so many prescription medications are suddenly not available at the local pharmacy – or at any pharmacy anywhere in the country – has been a recurring news item for several months. But are pharmacies the problem? Are they just greedy money machines that won’t order what they don’t want to order and don’t care about the old and the sick and the in pain? In a debate article from May 19 (dn.se) two Stockholm doctors say no, and that in reality Swedish pharmacies knock themselves out trying to find medicine for their customers (a pharmacist showed me recently how to find a pharmacy that had what I wanted in stock – on fass.se).
For those who weren’t here at the time, previous to 2009 pharmacies were state-owned affairs, like Systembolaget. Since the deregulation, things have improved greatly, like business hours, numbers of stores (at least in the cities) and an improved selection (state-owned tampons were not fun). It’s uncertain where the bottle neck is. After all, the pharmacies don’t make money on medication they haven’t sold, and the pill has a pretty captive audience.
This afternoon Eric Ullenhag gave it up for Nyamko Sabuni, who can now count on being the next leader of the Liberal Party, starting Friday.
In the Debate article published in Aftonbladet, Ullenhag says the party risks deep divisions if he continues with his campaign, and asks party members to ”take care of each other,” and that other party members – and even other parties’ members – aren’t the enemy.
The ball is now in Sabuni’s court.
For the seventh time, Sweden tried and failed to be host country for a winter olympics (svd.se). For various reasons, Sweden lost to Italy; one stated reason was the lack of enthusiasm on the part of Sweden’s population, perhaps in particular Stockholm’s previous city counsellor for sports who stated that Stockholm didn’t want to be a part of it (svd.se). It perhaps also didn’t help that OS athletes were supposedly supposed to use public transportation to get around, something that only just barely works for the native population. The Olympic Committee was also not convinced that Sweden’s businesses were absolutely committed to financing the spectacle. The Swedish games committee had only gotten ”letters of intent” to finance it, nothing more concrete.
It is also possible that Stockholm city council chair Anna König Jerlmyr breaking out in song in the middle of her presentation didn’t go over that well either. In her defense, though, it was only a single line from an ABBA song. It was cute. Perhaps too.
Sweden’s presentation was ”new” and ”modern” according to Stockholm’s current city counsellor for sports, but it must be surmised that the majority of the Olympic committee was not so into Sweden’s big ideas of what modern is.
The Liberal Party’s Nominating committee has formally nominated Nyamko Sabuni for party leader. From 21 districts, she received 19 votes of support so this shouldn’t be a surprise. But as noted yesterday, 11 electors wrote in a debate article in Sunday’s Expressen that they would vote their own way – iow for Eric Ullenhag – and ignore their subjects’ votes.
Will they or won’t they? We’ll be finding out soon, before or on vote day this coming Friday.