September 2019 • Page 2 of 3 • SwedeInternational

18 sep. – a jobs package that we hope helps

A lot has been said about Sweden’s budget, as hints of what it will contain came out in dribs and drabs. It’s been talked about in this blog here, here, here and here. Here, and here too. But the guessing is over – the budget came out today.

Most of what had earlier been leaked came true, although the numbers sometimes took a hit. One thing that hasn’t been talked about so much in advance is the jobs package. We have now learned that the government, the Social Democratic party and the Green party, and its supporting cast of the Center and Liberal parties, have put together a packet of job-related measures expected to cost 1.3 billion kronor.

The jobs package is an umbrella term for measures that aim to increase employment and employability. Latest unemployment figures show an increase of a full percent, to 7.1% unemployed in August. This is 56,000 fewer people than were employed at this time last year. Sysselsättningsgraden – how many people were employed for at least one hour during the measured week – was 68.3% in August (bit.ly/EkonomifaktaSysselsättning). The buzz is that an economic downturn is on the horizon, and these numbers aren’t encouraging.

Of the 1.3 billion kronor, the biggest outlay is for paying for extra services and introductory jobs (extratjänster och introduktionsjobb). Extra service jobs are jobs mostly in the service sector and are directed to long-term unemployed and newly arrived immigrants. Introductory jobs are largely the same but are private-company based. The government pays the employer to employ someone, and that person in turn receives a regular job-commensurate salary. The government basically tries to make it easier and economically advantageous to hire people who would not normally be very sought after. About 427 million kronor has been designated for this effort, and 2,200 people are expected to benefit from it ( http://bit.ly/AftonbladetJObbpaket).

Another outlay goes to labor market training programs, in which a job seeker receives training for a specific field or job that the Employment Service (Arbetsförmedling) thinks they’re suited for and in which there is a need for workers. Bus drivers, truckers and even excavator operators are named as occupations that need filling (http://bit.ly/AftonbladetJObbpaket).

Another financial injection has been designated for “education lifts” (kunskapslyft). In this case, 281 millions kronor is earmarked for the further education of adults who have some education behind them but who need more to better meet job market requirements. Another example is funding the pedagogical education for adults who have job experience behind them but who need the extra education to become qualified teachers. 1000 people are expected to be helped by this measure (http://bit.ly/AftonbladetJObbpaket).

The jobs package budget proposal will be replacing funds that the current Moderate and Christian Democratic budget cut back last spring. These programs were cut because they were generally considered ineffective – more people did not find jobs after having gone through these programs than if they hadn’t. But now these programs are back, in basically unchanged form.

16 sep. – oil prices start ticking

A drone attack by Huthi rebels in Yemen, backed by Iran, hit oil production facilities in Saudi Arabia last Friday and caused a production stop to the tune of 5.7 million barrels per day. Or putting it another way, halting 6% of the world’s oil supply (). Something fun to do might be to sit outside a gas station and watch the price of a liter gas (and diesel) flicker up and down as the extent of the strike damage filters up to us here in Sweden.

The Swedish Energy Agency, energimyndigheten, states that Sweden imports about 22 million cubic meters of crude oil a year, mostly from the North Sea and Russia. We also have some heavy duty refining companies (see Preem blog here) making us, believe it or not, also an exporter of refined petroleum products. Be that as it may, the drone strike has led to the highest single-day oil price increase, in Sweden, ever ().

But it doesn’t stop there. All those Wish orders from China clogging up PostNord? China, but also India and South Korea, import huge amounts of oil from Saudi Arabia. The increase in cost makes manufacturing and transport even more expensive. Eventually, that makes the price we pay here also more expensive. Even if there is no shortage of petroleum in the world, and most countries have even a certain back-up supply, the hit makes things uncertain and unstable – two “un”s that spell turbulence.

Although the Huthi rebels have taken responsibility for the drone attack, there remain some doubts as to whether or not they could really have done it. Worst would be if they prove they can by doing it again. It also puts an extreme damper of the worst kind on Sweden’s hopes of helping mediate an end to the war. Since Margot Wallström has left the building at Arvfurstens palats it’s unlikely that our new Minister for Foreign Affairs Ann Linde will pick up the glove. It looks like she wouldn’t find any interested parties over there anyway.

15 sep. – pride needed more than ever

Sölvesborg, on the east coast of Blekinge, has decided, that in the future, they will not raise the gay pride flag on the local municipal building. Not even in August, which is unofficially pride month and when the marches generally begin. Not that there’s ever been a pride march in Sölvesborg – but there will be now.

Not coincidentally, Sölvesborg municipality is run by a coalition of parties – Moderates, Christian Democrats, Sweden Democrats as well as the local parties Sölvesborg- and Lister parties.

Since 2013, the pride flag was raised during the month of August, a precedent set by the then-ruling Social Democratic party. Current City Commissioner Louise Erixson of the Sweden Democrats says that the pride flag is a political symbol and is not an official part of the municipality’s flag policy. The pride flag was an exception to the flag policy, she says, and something that undermined flag policy tradition. Erixson notes that Sölvesborg raised the pride flag for Stockholm Pride, an organisation that has positioned itself in opposition to 30% of Sölveborgs’ voters when it excluded the Sweden Democrats from its party leader debates. “A municipality that raises the pride flag therefor positions itself, if indirectly, behind this kind of undemocratic behavior,” Erixson continued ().

But that isn’t the problem, Erixson stated. “It’s an example of a problem that can come up when a municipality, which should be neutral, breaks with traditional flagging rules.”

The Moderate Party’s spokesperson for HBTQ issues, Filippa Reinfeldt, opposed the change, calling it inappropriate. “Every municipality can decide for itself if it wants to raise the Swedish flag or the municipality coat-of-arms… But, regarding the pride flag, it’s not the Moderate Party’s position and is completely inappropriate. I see the pride flag as a symbol for freedom and the right to be and to love who you want ().

Another critic is Sophia Ahlin, Moderate Party member and chair for the nearby Karlskrona Pride. SVT Blekinge reports that a pride parade in Sölvesborg is now in the works – on Friday during Pride Week (). There’s never been a pride parade in Sölvesborg before, but one is clearly needed more than ever.

Sep. 14 – at least Social Democrats still no. 1

pic: svd.se/ny-svd-sifo-sd-far-hogsta-siffran-nagonsin

The Sweden Democrats are at a new high in the polls. At 20.2 % they are again the second most popular party in Sweden, with a 2% increase in support since the last poll. The increase is largely due to increased support in Stockholm. It is also said that SD gains when the other parties try to shut it out, like in the current all-party-minus-SD talks on how to meet the rise in violent crime ().

Just today’s headlines – “Man taken into custody after morning’s shooting” () and “Explosion in Lund – female student seriously injured” () – are examples of what voters are waking up to. Morning’s shooting? It makes you wonder what’s on the agenda for the afternoon. The student was injured in the explosion directed at the corner store below her on the first floor.

It’s a dangerous development when people don’t feel safe. It’s a dangerous development when what politicians do and what they describe isn’t matched by what people are experiencing. It’s easy to understand that people cast about for something untried, since what’s been tried isn’t addressing their concerns. The government, and the parties they’re working with, need to up their game. That at least the Social Democratic party is still no. 1 is not good enough.

13 sep. – rough road to rules on scooters

Clogging the sidewalks, running over people, driving on the sidewalks, creating traffic problems, being a lot of fun… electric kick scooters are accused of a lot of bad things (except that last one, which is just true). Yesterday in Dagens Nyheter, Green Party member and traffic city commissioner Daniel Helldén called for a slew of new regulations to make scooters less wild horse and more dog-on-a-leash ().

First, he suggests, scooters need their own vehicle category in order to more accurately be addressed. Because scooters aren’t pedaled, they’re allowed on the sidewalks as long as they’re going at a walking pace. This creates a lot of irritation on the part of pedestrians. Furthermore, he writes, the city should require scooter companies to apply for a special license to operate on city streets. This would allow the city to regulate scooter numbers, their parking, and even the number of companies renting out scooters. Helldén also suggests increasing the scope and responsibilities of parking enforcement officers to include scooter handling.

Sweden’s police corps agree that juridically, electric scooters get lumped together with bicycles and so have very few regulations.

Although Sweden does love a good regulation, cities the world over have struggled with what to do with this craze/brilliant city transportation method. Here’s a small sample:

Tokyo. According to DN, scooters in Tokyo have kick stands that apparently fall out automatically, preventing their lying all over the sidewalk. The Asian Review notes that scooters there have license plates, side mirrors, and must drive on the road (s.nikkei.com/AsianReviewScooters).
Brussels. Scooters in Brussels must park in specific zones or the company has to pay a fine. Unknown if they then pass on this fine to scooterers, but otherwise, not so much regulations. Possibly, they are very popular with lower level EU bureaucrats flying off to different meetings to discuss other regulations.
São Paulo. Scooter drivers must stay off the sidewalk and must wear a helmet.
Beijing. Nope, no scooters.
Moscow. Scooters are limited to 20 km/hour. This after there were some models that went up to 90 km/hour.
UK. Not legal. Because they are motorised and pedal-less they can’t be used on sidewalks and bike lanes, and because they’re so slow they’re not allowed on the road. Word is, that you won’t get arrested if you’re scootering carefully, but you run a risk ().
Canada. Toronto is still thinking about allowing them. Montreal has designated parking areas (widely ignored it seems), and you need a helmet. Meanwhile, in Calgary and Edmonton no helmet is required, but their driving differs – in Calgary, it’s allowed to drive on the sidewalk but not on the road, while in Edmonton the opposite is true ().
Germany. One scooterist was found out on the autobahn, and in Munich there were 900 cases of scootering while drunk (this is verboten) so there are problems a little everywhere and stricter regulations are in the works
NYC. Are you kidding? No. No scooters. This would be crazy. Bad enough with all the e-mopeds on the sidewalk.
Madrid. Helmets if you’re under 16, and only on a certain kind of road (and not in roundabouts). Apparently though, Madrid has a tradition of allowing blind people to have stands selling lottery tickets throughout the city. Carelessly parked scooters and people with visual impairments is truly a very bad combination. No wonder that people are in an uproar about it.

The above examples are taken from both DN’s and SvD’s reporting () and ().

It’s a hodgepodge out there. Scooter responsibly.

12 sep. – a better economy for those with a fixed economy

“Life should be good for the country’s retirees,” said Löfven. “That’s all there is to it” (). With these words, the Prime Minister announced that taxes on pensions are going to be reduced for all retirees with a pension of more than 17,000 kronor a month (retirees with a pension lower than 17000 a month got a tax reduction last year).

Although he made it sound like the most obvious, and easiest, thing in the world to do, if it had been, he would have perhaps done this earlier than five years after having taken power. The Moderate Party’s economic spokesperson Elisabeth Svantesson didn’t waste any time giving her response: “Retirees have gotten tax reductions to the tune of 27 million kronor over the last ten years, and the Moderate Party has been behind 21 of them” (b). It appears everyone is in agreement that reducing taxes on people that can’t exactly go out and get a new job with a better retirement plan is a good idea.

The government also announced raising the basic pension by 200 kronor a month. The basic pension is what is doled out to persons that have no other retirement income, and also to those who have a pension but one that is extremely low. This is a lot of people, people. 675,000 people, according to Expressen. Even the housing supplement is being raised to a maximum of 7000 kronor a month for singles (3500 kronor for a married person).

All in all, the measures announced today will come in at 4.3 billion kronor (). Where exactly the money is coming from, and what might take a hit, remains an awkward question that definitely poisons the punch bowl.

Hold on to your hats, the full budget will be presented on the 18th of September.

11 sep. – book cutting

The television program Go’Kväll, Good Evening, shown daily on Sweden’s Television, announced the other day that it would no longer have a book review segment. This has riled up a lot of people, including the newspaper Expressen and other smaller dailies around the country. “Bye-bye public education,” wrote program host and author Daniel Sjölin. “Now is the final annihilation of literature’s presence on SVT” ().

SVT says that they need to renew and rejuvenate the program. Apparently the show’s loyal audience is made up of women in the over-55 category. Which is bad or something. “It’s like SVT wet their finger, held it up in the air, and figured that only Netflix matters” said Ingalill Mosander, who has worked on the program for twenty years.

Not at all, responds Bengt Strömbro: “we’re neither hunting a younger audience nor dicking around with our faithful viewers: It’s about developing the format to increase interest, and staying relevant.” (He could have said messing around, or screwing around, but you get the picture.)

SVT’s programming choices are not irrelevant. It’s the state TV channel, the one you don’t have to pay for in some cable package to see, but to which some of your taxes go. It’s formally run by a foundation, which serves as a sort of buffer between the state and the channel’s organisation. Until just recently, only January of this year, the board members of the foundation were politically appointed. Someone finally figured out how weird that looked, and they changed it.

SVT’s role is to meet the interests of all of Sweden, and to contribute to a feeling of community around the country. “When people in Sweden are watching at the same time, and sharing the same experience, we create a feeling of connection – we share both solemnity and laughs” ( https://www.svt.se/omoss/var-roll/). In this case, they took out a possibility for both solemnity and laughs when they cut the book coverage.

10 sep. – new appointments

Two new ministers, an ex-minister gets the EU’s migration portfolio and and an ex-party leader goes back into uniform. Where to start?

When Margot Wallström said buh-bye to the Foreign Minister job there weren’t really a lot of candidates to replace her. It had to be a woman, so that narrowed it right down too. Today, we got the formal word that the new Minister for Foreign Affairs will be Ann Linde, previously Minister for Foreign Trade, with responsibility for Nordic affairs.

This is not particularly surprising, and she’ll likely continue with a feminist foreign policy (but without the fanfare). However, her appointment is far from unquestioned: Linde showed incredibly poor judgement when she heard about the data leaks at the Swedish Transport Agency (Transportstyrelsen) – and didn’t do anything. Let’s hope she’s learned something, or Sweden’s security is in shaky hands. A minor, but likely painful, problem will be all the coming meetings with foreign representatives who will no doubt think, however briefly, of Anna Lindh, the well known and popular Foreign Minister who met a tragic end in 2003.

The new Minister for Employment, Eva Nordmark, will also have to fill large shoes. Nordmark comes from TCO, The Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees where she has been chair. TCO is an umbrella organization for 13 different white-collar unions and as far as anyone knows, is skeleton free. The Ministry for Employment is responsible for “the labour market, the work environment, gender equality, human rights at national level, children’s rights and the introduction of newly arrived immigrants,” so not so piddly.

Meanwhile, the previous Minister for Employment, Ylva Johansson, is in Brussels and looks to be getting the dubious honor, but important position, of heading up EU’s Home Affairs office. The EU commission is the executive branch of the EU, proposing legislation and implementing decisions (nod here to Wikipedia) – at Home Affairs, Johansson will be working on easy stuff like migration issues and security. EU commissioner von der Leyen described Johansson as “hands-on. If you want something to be done, ask her”(t.sr.se/SRJohansson).

There’s going to be a lot of asks, as there is a lot that people want done. Or not. Some people want their own migration policy and not EU deciding it for them. Getting 28 countries to agree on a migration policy is, well, as the Chinese have it “when the sun rises in the west.”

Finally, Major Jan Björklund is back on the job. This time, not as Liberal Party leader but as acting operations leader in Middle Military Region’s command staff (). Though he couldn’t introduce discipline in schools, it seems like he’s giving it another try in the trenches.

9 sep. – more budget bits

The Green Party, Center Party and Left Party have all had their speeches in the spotlight regarding the budget bits they say they’ve won. The ruling Social Democrats open parliament tomorrow, so today was the Liberal Party’s turn to claim cred for getting something through budget negotiations.

“It’s time to be serious about starting up Sweden’s cement mixers” said Johan Pehrson, group leader for the Liberal Party (). He’s talking about building jails, presumably, not new footwear: The Liberal Party’s message was the 700 million kronor that is going to be allotted to upgrading the whole judiciary system and related instances. Everything from proactive measures to prevent crimes from being committed, to customs enforcement, to police resources, the coast guard and the coroner’s office, to Sweden’s Security Service and legal staffs, to actual penal buildings – they’re all are going to get a slice of the pie.

The question is if the pie is big enough to feed all those hungry mouths. According to the Liberal Party, these efforts are being made due to the persistent and persuasive efforts of their party, but aside from actual numbers there was hardly disagreement about the need for some sort of system restorative. The judicial system (rättsväsendet) gets a little under 50 million kronor in the current budget, so this is a little tonic, not a large one (). Perhaps not coincidentally, the Liberal Party is a little part of the discussion, not a large one.

8 sep. – Wallström’s report card

Sweden’s getting a new minister for foreign affairs. We don’t know who, yet (maybe we’ll know Tuesday with the government declaration – regeringsförklaring), but let’s do a quick evaluation of the last five years of Swedish foreign policy under Wallström.

Margot Wallström will likely be remembered especially for three things: a feminist foreign policy, not signing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and recognizing the state of Palestine. The first, perhaps, will have the most long-lasting impact.

There’s no absolute definition of a feminist foreign policy. It’s new! But we can say, without, hopefully, being way off in the bushes, that a feminist foreign policy proposes that gender equality is both a goal as well as something that is necessary to reach other goals. That means, among other things, that peace is not truly achieved and/or lasting unless women receive equal standing at the negotiating table, that trade agreements need to address women’s industry, that war and civil unrest unequally target women (and other societal segments like the elderly and the young, whose voices are traditionally ignored).

Since Wallström’s original invite, other countries have arrived at the party too. Canada has a Feminist International Assistance Policy (thanks Justin), and France’s foreign policy has been locally dubbed a feminist one, specifying gender-related priorities as a “principle and cross-cutting theme” ( https://www.icrw.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Defining-Feminist-Foreign-Policy-Brief-revised.pdf).

We know, though, that Sweden simultaneously also completed arms transactions with Saudi Arabia, fulfilling previously signed contracts, keeping Sweden in the remunerative, hi-tech arms game, and saying nada/nothing/zero/what? about the status of women in the kingdom. For some this was a betrayal of a feminist foreign policy, and for others it was a bow to realism.

Not signing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was definitely a bow to realism. There was simply no one, except for a sliver of hopefuls, that thought this would be helpful to Sweden, or be productive in attaining world peace. Wallström was thrown a bone in the form of a possible, future, observer status, which was made the most of by an understanding press.

Something that was not particularly popular with the press, or with almost anyone else outside of Sweden, was unilaterally recognizing the state of Palestine. Wallström no doubt intended it to in some way jump start, or shock, negotiations, but didn’t look around and notice that no one else was on the train, particularly our own EU partners. There has not been an slew of copycat recognitions, so it’s been slightly embarrassing and the effect has been minimal.

Not that it’s easy to make a mark. Wallström’s feminist foreign policy is perhaps her best legacy – a vision. An idea of a new path. It’s not that bad for five years.