Löfven Archives • Page 2 of 2 • SwedeInternational

29 aug. – politicians, affronted

“The biggest problems in society today are both the shootings and the explosions.”

There aren’t many that would disagree with Minister for Home Affairs Mikael Damberg on this. Two women died this week, one shot at point blank range while out walking – and carrying her baby – and the other from shots fired from the street while she was in her home. These two outrageous incidents are only the latest. But the fact that the victims this week are women, and that they weren’t killed at the hands of a male acquaintance (like in the vast majority of cases), made for a barrage of tweets from the country’s politicians.

“Complete darkness,” chirped Center Party leader Annie Lööf, “criminals have lost all respect for human life.” “Only lame and disgusting monsters go after a new mother” tweeted a shocked, just shocked, Minister for Justice and Migration Morgan Johansson: “They will be hunted to the end of the world if needed.” And the Swedish Prime Minister was not late in chiming in. “This is an incomprehensibly evil action, that makes me and the whole country disgusted. This has no place in our society. We will steadfastly conquer these murderers.” It’s possible these statements of extreme indignation sounded better in Swedish, but they didn’t, really.

Since these are only the latest events in a rising level of violent crime, there have been a slew of suggestions for countering it over the last few years. “More police!” has been a recurring refrain, but this takes time and good will. Police in Sweden have traditionally been seen as only slightly better than old gum scraped off the bottom of your shoe. This attitude should perhaps be changed first, although there is no sign of this from the government.

Two steps that appear more likely to be implemented in the nearer future is a reduction in the number of hoops a police department must hop through to put up a surveillance camera, and an initiative to require registration of all new SIM card buyers. True to form, neither of these “quickest” measures are likely to be in place before well after the new year. If things continue as they’ve been going, 23 more people won’t live to see these measures enacted.

Thurs. 22/8 – Harpsund Day one

The Löfven government convened on Harpsund today for their annual team building session, getting together to consolidate their politics and vision for the coming year. The Swedish Green Party is attending as well, as government coalition partner, while the Center Party and Liberals will be listening carefully to see what signals the Social Democrats send out in regards to their agreed-upon 73-point plan.

What political ideas can be actualized depends on the economy, and how much the government can afford to spend. Minister for Finance Magdalena Andersson’s presentation and analysis of how much economic margin exists for any further reforms was the first day’s highlight – and/or the dark cloud hanging over all the bright ideas the government might come up with.

Andersson’s afternoon press conference didn’t hold any surprises, only an acknowledgement that the wind in Sweden’s economic sails is slackening a bit. Her deeper analysis will serve as the frame for the fall budget negotiations that need to be held with the Center Party and Liberals. Without these two parties on board, the budget risks failing in parliament – leading, if not to a new election, then at least to massive uncertainty and instability. Not good, in other words, for the Löfven government.

One reform already agreed upon by the four parties is getting rid of the emergency austerity tax (värnskatt) – an extra tax on high incomes. The tax was supposed to be temporary, but has been in place since 1995. Other reforms are almost a given as well: the ”free year,” a repris of ”year off for personal development” Green Party demand (that was roundly derided as a monetary black hole the first time around), and a reduced employer tax (arbetsgivaravgift) if the employee is a young person or a new immigrant. These reforms are already expected to cost 19 billion kronor, which doesn’t leave much over for new demands from cooperating parties or any unexpected expenses. Any worsening on the trade horizon, a harder than expected Brexit, or the complete collapse of the Italian government are a few of the worst case scenarios that the government (and the rest of us) are hoping don’t happen.

But, Andersson concluded with, Sweden has the muscles to meet the future. So far, then, no economic stimulus measures are in the works.

Sun. 18/8 – money in, more money out

Summer is over. It’s not over because a certain amount of days in a row have a certain temperature, like when you hear that winter has started (no, not yet), and it’s not that you’ve stopped reaching for your flip-flops on your way out the door. No, summer is over because the Prime Minister has held “the summer speech” (sommartalet).

Why this particular speech is called the summer speech, when it actually signals the end of summer, is a mystery. But it’s been held. And the news is a new, big injection of funds to all the poor municipalities out in the country, courtesy of richer municipalities (kommuner) .

This has always been the case – richer municipalities contribute to the life support of poorer ones that, due to whatever reasons, can’t cover their expenses. In Swedish it’s called kostnadsutjämningssystemet or, cost equalisation system, and the main idea is that municipalities and regions throughout Sweden should have, and shall have, the same economic resources with which to manage their responsibilities.

However, the movement of people and services from poorer municipalities and regions to richer municipalities and regions has only continued: The tax income from younger people still living and working in the smaller municipalities simply does not cover the expenses that the these entities must cover, like taking care of their elderly. Municipalities that have not been able to cover their expenses get financial injections every year, but Löfven went out today to say the injections will be increased. Aftonbladet reports that with these changes, Stockholm will pay 1.6 billion kronor more than it has before. Richer municipalities that will now be paying more to keep poorer ones functioning, however, will be compensated by a special “introduction support” (införandebidrag) ().

Obviously, the details are fuzzy. This is, after all, a summer speech, and those who are still on vacation can go back to sipping umbrella drinks. But another group that might want a stiff drink right now are the municipality governments who will be forking over a bigger sum than they perhaps counted on.

Fri. 26/7 – Rocky IX: behind bars

A new movie?

So much to say. Is there a diplomatic crisis? This is Trump, people. He’ll milk it for as long as he wins home opinion with it and then forget it. Why is he being taken so seriously? Perhaps it is as Elsa Kugelberg writes in DN – that Sweden is unfortunately so dependent on the US for its security, mostly via NATO (to everyone’s irritation), that it is forced to take the president seriously.

Plus, it’s summer, and there is no-other-news.

There is, though, more Rocky news. For one, he’s still releasing music even though he’s behind bars. “Live fast” was recorded well before Rocky’s Sweden visit. The single has been described as “dark” (bit.ly/DNRockySingle).

Then, some woman went crazy screaming at the staff of the Swedish Embassy in Washington. She kicked a tent, and turned over a table, and has apparently admitted to throwing a can of soda at the door of the embassy and yelling that she wanted to blow the f’n place up (). These are bad times on the mental health front.

Former Prime Minister Carl Bildt has responded to Trump’s tweets, but so far (and to his credit because what could he possibly say?), Löfven has declined. Nothing that Carl Bildt, Stefan Löfven or Sweden’s ambassador to the US can say will have any effect on Trump because, well, he isn’t actually speaking to them.

Sat. 20/7 – when tweets fail just call

President Trump and Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Löfven had a 20 minute chat this afternoon during which Löfven explained to Trump that the Swedish courts were untouchable for both himself, US Presidents, and anyone else unconnected to the justice system. The chat, characterised as “friendly and respectful” by Löfven, and “a very good call” by Trump, didn’t change anything regarding the continued detention (now until July 25) of hip hop star ASAP Rocky.

Trump offered to cover the bail for Rocky, but bail is not the issue since it doesn’t figure in the Swedish justice system anyway: No one is supposed to be able to use money to buy themselves into an nicer situation.