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Thurs. 8/8 – Commissioner Johansson

The Löfven government today nominated current Minister for Employment, and Integration, and long time Social Democratic party member Ylva Johansson to be Sweden’s next EU commissioner.

In case you’re not 200% on the topic, the EU has 28 commissioners, one from each member country. After being nominated, they are questioned by the EU Parliament regarding their general suitability, and if that goes well, they form the EU President’s cabal. Team. Once there, they are allotted their own portfolio to manage, with the expectation they will act in the EU’s interests, not in their country’s interests.

Since 2010, Sweden’s EU Commissioner has been Cecilia Malmström from the Liberal Party. She has held the Home Affairs portfolio, and for the last five years, the Trade portfolio. With Trump alternately slapping on tariffs or threatening to slap on tariffs, she has had her hands full, and has arguably done a great job parrying, yet not quite antagonizing, the Trump administration. Trade is a high level portfolio and it’s been nice for Sweden to hold it.

Ylva Johansson began her political career as a member of the Left Party Communists (Vänsterpartiet Kommunisterna) back in 1988. (In 1990, the party changed its name to the Left Party after the collapse of the Soviet Union.) Johannson become Minister for Schools for the Social Democratic party in 1994. (Wikipedia doesn’t say why she changed parties, but it was definitely a good career move.) She has also served as Minister of Health and Social Affairs. Johansson represents north and east Skåne in Parliament.

Since the nomination is always worked out with the EU President in advance (the newly appointed Ursula von der Leyen from Germany – see earlier post), Johansson’s nomination is basically secured. von der Leyen has also gone on record for being in favor of a gender-equal commission (it’s currently – and always has been – very unequal) so that works for Johansson as well.

Wed. 7/8 – 6 billion off

The taxes the Swedish state pulled in for the month of July was 6 billion kronor less than what the Swedish National Debt Office (Riksgälden) had predicted, SvD and others reported today (). Instead of the expected 34.6 billion SEK, the tally was instead 28.2 billion. Is this bad? The Swedish debt office basically functions as the government’s own bank, getting loans and providing guarantees. Being off like this likely came as a bit of a surprise.

Sweden is still in the financial world’s good books though. Ever since the pretty ginormous economic crisis in the early 90’s, the Swedish government has had to keep a leash on it’s spending visavi income. As a result of the crisis, the government got its act together in a surprising way, and the ”government surplus objective” (överskottsmålet) was established. The situation became this: The government’s income, minus its expenses, had to equal 2% of GDP.

Since then, fewer and fewer governments have seen this amount of savings as quite so important. It is also darn hard – spending money is always more fun than saving money, and this holds for governments too. In the years since the crisis, the percentage the government has been required to save has been adjusted (read: decreased). As of January 2019, it is now required that the government’s income, minus its expenses, has to equal just 0.33% over a “business cycle.” (What counts as a business cycle? No one knows. It’s like an interpretive dance – you can make of it what you will) ().

Also just as a side note, having this surplus doesn’t mean that Sweden doesn’t have debt. As of July, Sweden’s debt lies at 1074 billion SEK, which isn’t bad at all (). Some people even think we should borrow more, and spend the money on things like health care, hospitals and taking care of old people – but that’s another blog post. In the meantime, Sweden’s AAA credit rating remains tops.

Tues. 6/8 – say cheese

A man from Göteborg was on trial today for having taken photos of various access-restricted and prohibited objects and areas throughout Sweden, and for collecting information on military-related complexes and facilities. Why? Curiosity and interest, he says. Not a chance, says the prosecutor.

The man is being charged with trespassing – not the mild variety, like if you accidentally wandered over onto military grounds while picking blueberries-kind of trespassing, but the serious kind – like sneaking under fences and taking pictures of military sites on behalf of foreign states-kind of trespassing.

There is no evidence that he actually passed on any photos or information to foreign states, but it appears that the prosecution is taking no chances.

In many instances, politicians are charged with what is called signalpolitik, or, sending a political signal – usually a new regulation or law that means to impart a message. One example might be plane tax (flygskatt) or subsidising the purchase of an electric bicycle: “We take the environment seriously” is the message, even if the method is of questionable validity. In this case, the message might be “Hey. We might not have a huge defensive capability, but what we do have, we want people to know that we take it seriously.”

No word yet on the outcome of the trial.

Mon. 5/8 – no rubber stamps here

There has been more than a few different media reports on how long it takes someone to get Swedish citizenship these days. In case you haven’t boned up on the requirements recently, you must:

be able to prove your identity,
have turned 18,
have a permanent residence permit, a right of residence or residence card,
have conducted yourself well, and
have lived in the country for a “certain amount of time.” (What this time is varies, so if this is actual for you check the details.)

At any rate, it seems like a popular thing to apply for. The Swedish Migration Agency (migrationsverket) reports having a backlog of 100,000 applications, and the waiting period for a decision is reported to be over 30 months ().

With Brexit looming, there has also been an influx of questions regarding the differences between having citizenship and permanent residence. For one thing, you need to be a citizen to work as a cop or as a judge, to be a career soldier or get elected to parliament. You also need to be a citizen to vote in a federal election, though for more local elections residency is enough. It’s also easier to move out of Sweden if you’re a citizen, and to move back if you find life easier here.

These are all good things, making the question rather ”why the wait?” rather than ”why the application?” There is more than one answer to that question, naturally. Brexit uncertainty is one – it can be time to get off the pot and get one’s citizenship in order. Then, it’s been a few years since Sweden’s population from Syria and other countries started to rise significantly – many of these people are in a position to apply and qualify for citizenship. In addition, after that rush of immigration calmed down, the migration agency had to downsize and there are now fewer people to process applications. Finally, citizenship quite frankly doesn’t have priority over asylum applications ().

And now for a little bit of irony. Long application times were such an awful, horrible thing that they made a new rule: If you have waited six months and haven’t gotten an answer, you can write in and ask for expedited handling. After this, the Migration agency has four weeks to make a decision. This has resulted in over 30,000 new instances of paperwork (that doesn’t even end always in a yes-or-no citizenship decision). No, wait, it gets worse. The migration agency often replies that they can’t yet make a yes-or-no decision. Then, that decision too can be appealed, in which case it becomes incumbent upon the migration agency to make a decision. All of which, again, increases the application waiting times for the vast majority of people. Only for the person in the know, and willing to push, is the process faster.

Squeaky wheel – meet grease. Maybe it “wasn’t supposed to work that way,” but this was the result. The process is about as clear as what the requirement “conducted yourself well” actually means.

Sat. 3/8 – SCB for Pride

Happy Pride everyone. In Stockholm there’s a parade today, but hell, let’s celebrate it everyday. (Not with a parade everyday though, because they really mess up traffic and people still have to get to dagis and to the dentist and make a living and the rest of it.)

Sweden is generally on the forefront of accepting people for who they are, but SvD reports today that Sweden is falling a bit behind these days. In particular, says, Alexandra Ward Slotte who travelled up for the parade, Sweden does not have a legal recognition of non-binary, or third gender (). Germany, Australia, New Zealand, various US states, India, Bangladesh, Canada, Columbia and more, recognise a third legal sex on official docs. Some can do this without any medical “test” or surgery, and in other countries a gender can be changed retroactively. So what is up in Sweden?

Of course, making available a third sex in official contexts has been talked about, but when even a person’s personnumber indicates their sex you know it’s not going to be an easy adaption. (Check the second to last number in yours – even numbers for women, odd numbers for men. I checked mine, and yup, there it was. It felt sort of weird, and wrong – what else is in there?)

Sweden’s Television did a quick survey as part of their 2018 election coverage and found that the Social Democrats, Green, Center, Liberal and Left parties indicated they thought making a third gender option was a good suggestion while the Moderates, Christian Democrats and Sweden Democrats (surprise! not) thought it wasn’t. It’s unclear what the question was exactly, but this gives an idea of how the parties are thinking about it at least.

Meanwhile, Sweden’s statistical bureau (SCB) has opened for a change to its guidelines regarding making room for a third gender, and has sought out responses (remissvar) from a slew of other government agencies (). So far, at least, the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) has returned a positive answer.

It makes you wonder, when a statistics agency, of all agencies, is ahead of the curve.

Fri. 2/8 – keeping the lights on

Cruising Bloomberg news for something to write about – besides ASAP Rocky – one headline from July 31st leapt out: “Sweden’s Biggest Cities Face Power Shortage After Fuel-Tax Hike” (bloomberg.com). Wait. What? We do? What fuel-tax hike?

A press release in April from the Ministry of Finance confirmed the tax hike (though not the possible power shortage). As part of the 73-point agreement between the Liberal, Green, Social Democratic and Center Parties, and formally entered in the Revised Spring Budget (vårändringsbudgeten), the previous tax relief measure was taken away (), meaning that taxes were raised. This to “contribute to” the switch-over to non-fossil fuels, and help make Sweden the first fossil-free welfare country in the world.

According to Bloomberg, the tax on fossil fuels used in heat and power stations has effectively tripled. Utilities like Stockholm Exergi AB, Eon and Göteborg Energi AB are quoted as having said they will be halting or cutting power production – although it won’t effect heating. It may, however, effect your wallet, so check your bill in the coming months.

In 2016, the Moderate, Center, Social Democratic and Christian Democratic parties agreed on the goal of making Sweden’s electricity 100% renewable by 2040. Now, the Moderates and Christian Democrats are saying they’re still on board – but hey, they weren’t ever talking about getting rid of nuclear energy by 2040. Nuclear energy has no CO2 emissions and is therefore not the fossil fuel that needs to go. The other parties, in particular the Green Party naturally, disagree, saying that nuclear power was absolutely part of the deal.

They were the ones who were there, so it’s hard for the rest of us to know and the matter remains a mystery. Will nuclear power be able to keep Sweden’s lights on until hydro- and wind power can take up the slack? Right now, they cover around 50% of Sweden’s energy needs, 11% or so is given us by fossil fuels and the rest, give or take, is covered by nuclear power ().

It’s early days, but already the leading fresh bread company in Sweden, Pågen, decided this last June not to expand its enterprise in Malmö when the energy company Eon said it couldn’t guarantee a steady supply of electricity ().

Brown-outs, anyone?

Thurs. 01/8 – new wheels jump

BIL Sweden, the Swedish trade association for manufacturers and importers of cars, trucks and buses, reported a huge increase in car and light truck purchases this year. Compared to last July, car purchases increased 89%, while light truck purchases went up 219% (). Before you get all worked up about these jumps, it was expected. Last July, purchases were way, way down because of the the bonus-malus incentive that was just going into effect. Then, people thought “New car right now? Um, no.” But now, it’s more like “Bonus-malus-shmalus. We still need a new car (or light truck).”

Side note: Some translate bonus-malus to “discount-premium,” and others more to “carrot-whip,” meaning that purchasers of new vehicles got money back if they purchased an environmentally friendly car, or, paid extra taxes if they bought a car that was deemed not so friendly.

BIL Sweden thinks this yo-yo vehicle market makes planning difficult for the industry and for the consumer. It is therefore asking the government (nicely) to procrastinate on putting the new emissions test standard into effect, that is otherwise set to start at the beginning of next year. The new method for measuring vehicle emissions, called WLTP, is the new EU standard, but BIL Sweden’s Mattias Bergman is thinking that any new standard should be introduced soonest in 2021. This to avoid creating uncertainty and confusion for the Swedish consumer, of course. By the way, this would also put off new and higher taxes for most cars, even on some hybrid cars that would suddenly and surprisingly end up on the malus side of bonus-malus with the new rules.

Buying something with an eye to taxes is sort of like playing Whac-a-mole, as many car and truck buyers perhaps have come to realize.

Wed. 31/7 – Spotify’s report card

Is Spotify Swedish? I don’t know. Swedes started it, certainly. But then the owners went and listed it on the New York and not the Stockholm Stock Exchange. They have a thousand or so employees here, but they have more in the US. The employees here pay taxes here of course, but Spotify is registered in Luxembourg so there go any tax wins for the state – plus founder and largest owner Daniel Ek manages his taxes through a bunch of companies in countries that have lots of palm trees, fancy accountants and empty offices ().

But OK, it’s pretty Swedish anyway, sort of, and we can point to our high innovation index ranking (2nd in the world – see earlier post) for a way of getting some Spotify cred. Yay Swedish teachers!

So here’s the Spotify news: It’s still not not that profitable. 13 years now, and really barely a cent in the plus column (). The report released today shows it’s still growing faster than your teenage nephew (who’s probably a paying Spotify member come to think of it), but there’s more competition than ever. (In the US, Apple Music has more subscribers than Spotify, even if Spotify has more overall users – .) The number of paying Spotify members increased by 31%, which, frankly, seems darn good – but, alas, the market expected a few more. When that didn’t materialize, Spotify stock took a hit ().

Spotify and its backers are hoping that its foray into podcasting will take off, and that Spotify will be the giant everyone thinks it is. Too bad that that won’t help Sweden that much.

Tues. 30/7 – it’s the economy

Statistics Sweden (the SCB, Statistiska centralbyrån) released the numbers on the economy this morning. Sweden’s second quarter GDP (BNP, bruttonationalprodukt in Swedish), compared to this time last year was lower than expected, and came in at 1.4%. The Swedish central bank (Riksbanken), whose measures the governnment uses for its work, thought it’d be 1.8%. So that’s not so great but perhaps not a signal to freak completely out.

Sweden’s 2nd quarter GDP wasn’t better than 1st quarter numbers either, unfortunately – it was lower by 0.1%. Again, the Swedish Fed thought (hoped?) differently, namely that it would increase by 0.1% compared to 1st quarter. It seems their algorithms might need to be recalibrated.

No great cause for economic alarm here, just more evidence that the economy isn’t going gangbusters anymore, or likely anytime soon. It seems instead like we’ll be muddling through for a bit – barring a no-deal Brexit, in which case things will become much more unsettled.

Mon. 29/7 – loaning books by the suitcase

Earlier this year, Region Stockholm’s culture department decided to take down and move the International Library. The main reason cited was that there wasn’t enough interest (read: book loaning) to keep it going. The International Library, currently housed in the the Stockholm Public Library near Odenplan, specialises in books and magazines in languages other than Swedish.

The people who frequent the library – and those who don’t, really, but want it to stay open anyway – have protested the closing by organizing massive book loaning actions. Over a thousand activist book loaners have streamed to the library during its few Saturday open hours to browse and borrow – loans increased by 400% already the first day. Books have been borrowed by the suitcase, SvD reports ().

Most people had no idea the library was even in danger of closing – and anyone who has stayed in Stockholm over the summer knows just how dead town is, or seems to be. Nothing happens over the summer, or is supposed to. The suspicion is that this decision was deliberately taken at this time so no one would get around to doing anything about it. Also because this particular library focuses on books in other languages (where else can you loan books in Thai or Ukrainian?), the protest (and perhaps the closing) has a political bent. As Viola Bao writes in DN (), Stockholms Commission for Sustainability (hålbarhetskommissionen) (and yes, there is one) found that new Swedish or foreign born girls use the library frequently. Plus, this is a time when the Sweden Democrats are exercising their electoral muscles – so what kind of signal is the local Stockholm blue-green government sending? (Blue being the Moderate, Liberal, Center and Christian Democratic Party and the green being the Swedish Green Party, currently in a coalition since the election in 2018.)

Whether this closing lands on the devious scale or not, it does reflect a distressing trend for both reading and city priorities.

PS If you feel like taking action yourself, check out the Facebook page for Rädda Internationella bibliotek.