sd Archives • SwedeInternational

idle threats?

**Looking rather peaceful at the moment.**
*image source: viator.com viator.com https://tinyurl.com/yc6vcwum*

Edited to add – I was wrong. The government today announced it is going along with the Sweden Democrats and reducing the amount of biofuel that is mixed in with regular fuel. This is just the beginning – there are still questions. The question of what happens if/when Sweden doesn’t meet its climate goals, how this announcement is met by the general population, and where Sweden might have to try and make up for increasing CO2 elsewhere, remains to be seen.

The Sweden Democrats threatened the government with pulling their support and causing a governing crisis twice this week. There’s nowhere else they can go on these particular subjects, so the response has been a collective ho hum. But the fossil fuel reduction obligation and immigration are two issues that are not going to go away.

The price at the pump

The Sweden Democrats garnered a lot of votes with their promise to cut gas prices. A large part of the cut was to come from drastically reducing the percentage of biofuel mixed in with regular fossil fuel.

In 2018, Sweden passed legislation to successively reduce the percentage of fossil fuel at the pump – hence the name “reduction obligation” (reduktionsplikten) – in favor of a larger percentage of biofuel. However, biofuel is almost entirely imported (di.se) and expensive to make, which raises the pump price.

Define “minimum”

The Sweden Democrats want to lower the amount of biofuel to the lowest level possible under EU rules and by that, decrease the cost of gas. The EU hasn’t set a fixed percentage, but instead has a general carbon emissions goal in the transport sector that nations can reach the way they want. Therefore, the Sweden Democrats think the required percentage might be zero.

No one else is going along with zero. Finding other ways to cut carbon emissions to meet EU rules and avoid paying a fine is a huge headache that might lose voters. That SD loses some votes isn’t keeping anyone other than SD up at night.

immigration shwimmigration

Reducing immigration, however, is more than a one-off election promise for SD. It’s their reason for existence. After three years of negotiations, the European Parliament passed a proposal this week on how the EU will manage asylum and immigration. One passage has every single hair on SD’s head standing straight up. The proposal allows the EU to require member states to take in a certain number of third country nationals should a crisis arise.

SD’s Mattias Karlsson demanded that the government stop the EU agreement. Otherwise, he tweeted, it would be “hard to see how their cooperation with the government could continue.“

As it is quite a long road between a parliament decision to EU law, the government doesn’t seem to be sweating the threat. The negotiations between the parliament and the council of ministers over a final wording are likely to take time. It’s not until next year a binding vote might be taken. By that time, Sweden’s presidency will be long over, and with it its responsibility for shepherding the law through the system.

You do you!

say the courts (sort of)

**People will do what they want to do. What can you do.**
*source: https://tinyurl.com/dy8ky79b Myrtle Beach vacations*

It has been a busy week for Swedish courts, with many cases being covered in the news. Rulings this week on Cementa, hijab, and union membership have (believe it or not) something in common, namely rulings on behalf of the beleaguered part.

Cementa – the movie

Cementa has been covered in this blog earlier (here). But hang on to your hats, here’s a refresher: Cementa has been mining limestone on Gotland for a hundred years. Limestone is needed to make cement, and Cementa produces most of the cement Sweden uses for building. When Cementa applied to extend its mining license, the first court said “Sure.” Several environmental organizations appealed the decision, and the appeals court then ruled against Cementa.

At this point, the then-Social Democratic government stepped in. Without Cementa, it was argued, construction in Sweden would stop and mass lay-offs would result. With unanimous support from parliament, they passed a law that essentially granted just Cementa a temporary license to continue mining. This caused an uproar immediately – could the government even do that? Environmental organizations protested the government circumventing the court in that way. On Thursday this week, the highest administrative court in Sweden came back and said what the government did was legal.

For some, the special law that was passed to extend Cementa’s license was welcome, necessary and even commonsensical. The administrative high court’s decision has now upheld the government’s ability to do what it did. For others, both the government’s action then, and the high court’s decision now, is a weakening of the power of the courts.

If this isn’t fascinating enough (if you’re nerdy), though, wait a few days when the temporary license extension runs out. On December 13^th, Cementa’s new application to continue mining will be accepted or denied. Cementa part V: the New Application.

Go ahead, express yourself

Meanwhile in Skåne, another case of acceptance was on the docket. Staffanstorp municipality voted to forbid girls in elementary school from wearing a hijab or other head covering while in school. Parliament took up and rejected such a prohibition years ago, but Staffanstorp persisted in the administrative court. The prohibition was rejected in the first instance, and has now been rejected also at the highest instance, although not for the same reason.

At the district court level, the court disallowed Staffanstorp’s prohibition on a freedom of religion basis. The highest administrative court, however, rejected the prohibition on a freedom of expression basis instead. Clothing is an expression of religious belonging, the court said: Restricting the clothing that someone wants to wear affects the individual and their freedom to express themselves. A restriction is therefore not allowed.

Free time and work time

Neither is the Transport Workers’ Union allowed a restriction; in this case to its membership. This case began in 2018, when a regular member of the union was elected to represent the Sweden Democrats party at the municipal level. He was swiftly kicked out of the union for being an active member of a party that, according to the union, was not compatible with their organization’s statutes stipulating people’s equal value. Mats Fredlund sued the union, arguing that the union existed for its members and their work environment, and not for judging what its members did in their free time. The district court agreed, but the Transport Workers’ Union appealed. Now it has lost again. The court of appeals ruled that booting out Fredlund was abridging his right to freedom of association.

In each of these cases, the higher court ruled on behalf of the part that wanted to do what it wanted to do, and not for the part that wanted to restrict that action. This, for a country whose smallest party in parliament is the Liberal party.

A Paradigm shift

**Victory walk by party leaders Johan, Jimmie, Ulf and Ebba.**
foto: Jessica Gow/TT. https://tinyurl.com/ysdujr7w Tidningen Syre

A new Swedish government was announced Friday. The Moderate, Christian Democrat and Liberal parties will all steer the ship of state. Having said that, the presence of the Sweden Democrats was felt immediately. As expected, they will not be sitting in the government, but after an initial introduction of general policy directions by Prime Minister-in-waiting Ulf Kristersson, the microphone went first to the Sweden Democrats’ party leader, Jimmie Åkesson.

What followed was a long list of changes in migration, crime and punishment policy that SD, speaking together with the other three party leaders, expects to see to fruition. While not new, the different suggestions have probably never been heard strung together like that before. Åkesson called it a “paradigm shift,” and many would agree.

Safety and security first

The banner heading was “increased safety and security.” To that aim, Åkesson’s list included doubled sentences for crimes committed by gang members (like California’s STEP act), the end of all “crime rebates” (like the one which reduces the punishment of several crimes to only the sentence of the biggest crime), the institution of zones in which the police can body search someone (like in Denmark) on only a faint suspicion, some form of anonymous witnessing (also like in Denmark), and instituting a crown witness program (reduced sentences in exchange for information – like in Norway and the Netherlands). Sweden might also begin to out-source jails to other countries. For non-citizens, deportation might be on the table for a larger number of crimes.

The minimum

Regarding asylum rights, Åkesson was careful to state that the right to seek asylum would not be abridged. The rights and privileges granted to asylum seekers, however, were not going to exceed what European Union regulations stipulate. This meant, explained Åkesson, that the rules regarding asylum seekers and their ability to bring over family members would be stricter. Stronger identity documentation would also be demanded, and an investigation into if and how asylum seekers could be asked to fund part of their asylum costs (like they do in Denmark) is to be set in motion.

In addition, quota refugees (refugees who are relocated to third countries under the auspices of the UN) will be reduced from over 6000 to under 1000 – over 80%. Further, initial residency permits will be time-limited, not permanent, which has mostly been the case previously. Åkesson also talked about providing incentives for certain people to leave the country, especially, he said, those who haven’t integrated well. Finally, Swedish citizenship will be more difficult to obtain, requiring more time in the country, no criminal record and perhaps even “good behavior,” language proficiency and/or knowledge about Sweden – requirements that have not been asked for before.

What’s a chair?

The Swedish government and ice: Things we don’t know
*source: https://tinyurl.com/bddyepfp*

We know so little. We don’t know why the universe exists. We don’t know why we fall in love, or why prime numbers are so weird, or even why ice is slippery. We also don’t know who’s in charge of Sweden right now.

Ulf Kristersson’s right block won the election nearly a month ago, but they haven’t managed to actually field a winning team yet. Kristersson pops up like a human Ulf-in-the-box and says “nothing’s ready until it’s all ready” and then ducks back down again. Meanwhile, the Social Democratic party keeps holding press conferences on Nord Stream like the governing party they aren’t, really.

Who will sit in the government is a great unknown. We do know, however, that the Sweden Democrats will be chairing several heavy-weight committees: the justice, business, employment, and foreign affairs committees. These positions look important and eminently respectable – and therefor elevate the Sweden Democratic party several huge steps from its dirty, extremist history. The parliamentary system of government in Sweden, however, makes committee work slightly more visible than powerful.

The deets

In Sweden, elected members of parliament become members of one committee or another: Here the details and wording of motions and propositions are negotiated. There are 15 committees, plus one for the EU. In each committee there are 17 members seated proportionate to their respective strength in parliament.

The chair

The chair of each of these committees wields the gavel, but can largely only bang on the desk. The real work of passing budgets and laws in Sweden is done by the government. For example, it was not a problem for the last Social Democratic government that some committees were chaired by Moderates. The government got its will through committees with nary a bleat from the parties or the press.

The government sits on, and has the advantage of access to, enormous investigative and information resources (what fun would it be otherwise?). In many cases, and even now, we can assume, many questions have been worked out in advance. The members of the committees can be expected to bring them up and work together to get them done.

This isn’t to say that chairing a committee is only symbolic. Chairing a committee does have pluses, but as is so often the case, also more work. The chair arranges the agenda, arranges for guests to address the committee, meets and greets, is sometimes the only person in the committee to meet a source, and through all of this, gets training, practice, and insight. It’s valuable, in other words, but mostly indirectly advantageous. It’s the long game.

In addition, being the chair gets lots of visibility when reporters crowd around wondering what the committee is talking about. Being a chair but not in the government also handily allows them to not have to take the fall if the results don’t work out. A win-win for the Sweden Democrats.

In tied cases, the chair of a committee will be the deciding vote. What party holds the chair will then very much decide what goes forward to parliament. But it is the parliament where the final decision on a budget or law’s final yea or nay is decided.

In Sweden’s parliament the right-led block has a majority now – but not a strong one. Lots of interesting things can happen but they’re not likely going to come from a committee chair position.

Where they will come from is just another thing we don’t know.

A change in direction

**The Swedish flag and SD’s flag: And never the tvain?**
source: https://sverigesradio.se/artikel/7612399

Sweden’s elections generally don’t garner international headlines, but on Monday morning earlier this week, Sweden woke up in a country in which the far-right political party, the Sweden Democrats, had won 20% of the popular vote making it the second largest party in Sweden. For some, this was horrifying and for others, around 20% at least, not so much.

Although huge changes are not likely, Sweden could see a change in political direction with the new right-leaning constellation. The areas on which the Moderate, Christian Democrat, Liberal and Sweden Democrat parties agree upon are several. These are:

More controversially, the Sweden Democrats want to:

get immigration down to the lowest level possible; make deportation a more common sentence for convicted criminals who don’t have Swedish citizenship; contribute less (perhaps very much less) than the 1% of GDP that Sweden spends on foreign aid; cut down on public service TV and radio funding; reduce the required amount of biofuel mixed in with gas and diesel, and even take down the pride flags that often adorn busses and public buildings.

All or some of these cause problems with their partners:

While the Christian Democrats and the Moderate party can absolutely get behind reducing immigration, they make a difference between asylum seekers and others seeking to come into the country. SD doesn’t differentiate so much – immigrants are basically all the same and mostly undesirable. The Christian Democrats don’t want to lessen foreign aid at all. The Liberals won’t go along with cuts in public service or a reduction in biofuel percentages, and will not support any government that gives SD a seat at their table. And finally, no other party wants to spend any energy legislating around pride flags or other HBTQ+ issue.

(The Sweden Democrats’ other pet issues, like increasing both unemployment payments and old age pensions, are shared only with the Left Party.)

The conservative Moderate party leader Ulf Kristersson will become Prime Minister and will most certainly have the Christian Democrats beside him. For its extremist, white-power history as well as its current controversies, SD will most likely not be given a ministerial post despite its numerical dominance. However, in deference to SD, it’s not probable that the Liberals will be given one either.

That leaves a government of two smaller parties dependent on two others, one of which is extremely polarizing. Norway, Finland and Denmark have all been in similar situations with extreme conservative parties in power. Until now, Sweden has been the hold out. In those countries, those parties came into power and then lost power. In Sweden, we’ll now see.

15 Dec. – Löfven’s Christmas speech

Löfven holding the Christmas speech on Gotland
pic: Henrik Montgomery/TT

Prime Minister Stefan Löfven held his Christmas speech today in the ruins of the Church of St. Nicholas in Visby, on the island of Gotland. The church was part of a Dominican monastery built in the 1230s, and was burnt down in 1525 by an army from Lübeck. It is unclear why the speech was held just here, but there was at least fika and a mingle in the ruins before the speech.

Löfven spoke of how the season is representative of something bigger – of caring, and of not being indifferent to how others in society are faring. “When colleagues are chatting about how stressful it is to buy presents, others are wondering how in the world there will be money to buy even a single present to put under the tree for the kids” Löfven said. “That – sickness, loneliness, and poverty – can never be reduced to being one person’s problem. It is our collective responsibility.”

Löfven also threw in a note of thanks to the police and nurses who will be working during the holiday. “Many of us can be relatively free over the holidays, while nurses and the police continue working. They celebrate without their families so that we can be secure while celebrating with ours.”

A few pointed political comments were also thrown in, in a change from last year’s speech. Regarding the challenges forming a government after the results of the 2018 election, Löfven exclaimed that “We still succeeded in building a government led by the Social Democrats. Not least after brave decisions by the Center and Liberal parties, who chose to stand on the right side of history.”

Löfven also pointed a finger at the Moderate party leader Ulf Kristersson, SvD reports, saying that he had betrayed his promise not to cooperate with the Sweden Democrats: Kristersson only said that to keep the old Alliance parties together, Löfven claimed. It was also, Löfven expounded, “morally reprehensible” to have said to a Holocaust survivor that they would not cooperate with SD, and the turn around and do it” speaking of Kristersson’s meeting with Hédi Fried in June of 2018, and then his lunch with Jimmie Åkesson earlier this month.

Löfven also spoke the need for fast integration, and about the fight against crime. “Crime doesn’t have anything to do with the color of one’s skin or one’s religion, but with social class (samhällsklass) and a feeling of community (gemenskap).”

He also promised more money would be coming to the municipalities around Sweden. “We will not desert any municipality, any region, any part of the country. This means that we need to hold together” (SvD.se/julspeech).

4 Dec. – Kristersson at the Rubicon

Åkesson now allowed to join in some reindeer games
pic: expressen.se

As DN’s Ewa Sandberg put it, the Moderate party leader Ulf Kristersson ripped the bandaid off, and had an official chinwag today with Jimmie Åkesson, leader of the Sweden Democrats. The taboo of speaking to Åkesson in an official capacity has officially been challenged, even more than when the Christian Democratic party leader had lunch with him. DN’s editorial board called it “wrong”, and “ill-judged”, and “unwise” – because the Sweden Democrats (SD) are “not a party like the others. It’s a movement with roots in nazism” (DN.se/bandaid).

The latest and most stodgy poll of them all, the poll done twice a year by Statistics Sweden, had the Social Democrats at their lowest level in years (for the SCB poll) at 26.3% and the Sweden Democrats at their highest, with 22.6%. The Moderate party, who has almost always been Sweden’s second most popular party and opposition leader, was, again, a decided third (DN.se/SCBpoll).

When he was first elected party leader, Kristersson said he would never speak with, negotiate or compromise with the Sweden Democrats. But that was over two years ago, when it was still possible to bully them in parliament, and not let them join in any reindeer games. SD has since only become more popular, and nearly a quarter of the population is giving them the thumbs up. For the Moderate party (still the party that knows what fork to use between them) to gain power and get its policies through parliament to make its supporters happy, it needs SD. The Moderates appear to have given up the idea of getting the previous Alliance together completely, and are throwing a feather of their hat in with the Sweden Democrats. Rubicon, crossed.

As previously noted in this blog, the Sweden Democrats have had it easy, having never had to face the music for their enacted politics because they’ve never had the chance to enact any of their policies on a national scale (just in Sölvesborg and the jury is out over there).

But even if the majority of Sweden’s voters might someday vote for SD, which isn’t likely, maybe it won’t really matter – because according to Dagens Nyheter “the majority is never definitively right, even if it calls itself “the people” (DN.se/bandaid). Some people might think a statement like that is even more scary than SD.

27 Nov – unavoidable poll results

It happened again – the Sweden Democrats tied for first place in the latest poll. This time it was the Dagens Nyheter/Ipsos poll, whose results came out this afternoon. In the previous poll, the Sweden Democrats (SD) and the Social Democrats were also equal at the number one spot, but the margin of error negated the certainty of results. This time’s results confirm the trend (DN.se/Poll).

For a party that all the other parties wouldn’t speak to – ignoring them like children in a playground – the Sweden Democrats have done ok. More than ok. And the irony is that they’ve done so well – arguably – because everyone else was excluding them from their games and policy making. The Sweden Democrats have gotten votes from everyone who blames immigration for Sweden’s woes, from those tired of the current parties, and from those who protest how things seem to be going in Sweden – all the while being spared from having to face voter fire and ire because they haven’t been responsible for any of it: They’ve been kept away from any formal position of power, but also from responsibility.

The changes in percentage points were small and can easily sway another way come next poll. However it appears clear that Nyamko Sabuni is not raising her Liberal party’s numbers, and that Moderate party leader Ulf Kristersson is going to have a very hard time over the next few months (weeks?) making the decision of how close to the Sweden Democrats he’s willing to get. If he’s willing to formally stand with SD, the right block composed of (theoretically speaking) the Moderates, the Christian Democrats and SD get 48% of voter support, in contrast to the 42% the consortium of Social Democrats, Center, Liberal and Green parties have together. However, these parties have the support of the Left party: However unhappy the Left is with the Social Democrats, it’s highly unlikely they’ll help to vote them out. The Left gets generally at least 8% of voter support, which tips the scale.

The problem with lumping the right block parties together is that SD isn’t really a conservative party, but instead has often actually voted with Social Democrats on policy questions. What unites them with the right block is largely opposition to the current Social Democratic and Green party government, and a promise for a tougher stance against crime. How close they really want to dance, especially at future balls, is hard to say.

As mentioned in this blog the other day, the Sweden Democrats have made a lot of platform changes, making themselves over into a party you could invite in without having to be too scared of what the neighbours might think. They are, and have been for years, much too big to ignore. 25% of the population, at last poll, is ready to come to any party where SD is included.

24 Nov. – SD’s land days of plenty

SD’s Jimmie Åkesson revels in his popularity
pic: SVT.se

The Sweden Democrats are in the middle of their “Land days” (landsdagar) congress in Örebro and the changes in their platform have been several. A change of heart? A maturing social and political awareness? Or a paint job to look a little more up to date?

The official SD political platform will likely include the following changes:

ok for homosexual couples to adopt kids: “all children have the right to have a mother- and father figure in their lives” they write
will go along with the current, legal 18-week limit for question-free abortions (not their previous platform of a 12 week limit)
no upper age limit for free mammograms or cervical cancer screenings (SvD.se/congress).

As Ewa Stenberg at DN writes, SD’s core ideology is still intact, though: people who come to Sweden must adjust to Sweden, or leave; the number of people emigrating to Sweden must decrease – in fact, more should leave than stay; SD will see a minimum of language differences, cultural differences and religious differences; public service radio and television should act to increase social cohesion, and; previously convicted, repeat offenders can just be tossed into jail again without trial – if they’re really, really hopeless cases.

Moreover, the party held that: asylum seekers should only come to Sweden first via the United Nations’ quota system, and that preference should be given to women, children and persecuted minorities such as HBT-persons and Christians; the requirements for citizenship should be raised and more clearly be coupled with high degrees of societal integration; citizenship can be recalled if the person lied on their application or if they joined a terrorist organization; police training can be paid in some cases; legal parameters for crime fighting should be widened and that it should be made illegal to join a criminal organization.

SD’s group leader (soon to be ex-group leader) Mattias Karlsson raved that only SD could save the country. “The situation for Sweden is a total catastrophe. Sweden is, seriously, in a do or die position” (SvD.se/congress).

21 Nov. – another no confidence motion in the works

Sjöstedt has no confidence
pic: Jessica Gow/TT

Jonas Sjöstedt, leader of the Left Party, has threatened to set a no confidence vote into motion against Minister for Employment Eva Nordmark (read about no confidence votes here). Sjöstedt has made five demands, of which the first one is the big one:

the government stops the privatisation of the Swedish Public Employment Service, aka Arbetsförmedlingen,
the government allocates extra funds to stabilize the Employment Service’s ongoing work,
the government creates an economically detailed and timely plan for stopping the closing of Employment Service offices, and ensures a continued presence across the country creates a plan and make the necessary decisions in the law or in regulations to maintain and develop the Employment Service’s special competencies regarding special needs and support for the disabled,
the government states that any reform of the Employment Services will first be fully investigated in all relevant aspects, including cost estimates and transition procedures, before any part of the Employment Service is changed. An important part of this investigation is how municipalities’ responsibilities and economic situation is affected.

Reforming the Employment Service was a condition set by the Center Party to not vote down the Social Democrats in their bid to remain in power after the last election. Together with the Liberal party, the Center party and the two government parties agreed to a 73 point plan (also known as the January Agreement) that was filled with demands, including a total change in how the Employment Service was set up.

Many of the changes were anathema to Social Democratic voters, let alone Left party voters. The point that likely most sticks in the Left party’s craw is where it says ““This agreement means that the Left Party will not have influence over the political direction in Sweden during the coming term of office” (socialdemocraterna.se).

Sjöstedt is now considering calling the government’s bluff. Only together with the Left party does the government, together with the support from the Center and Liberal parties guaranteed by the government fulfilling the 73-point agreement, have the votes to pass legislation. Up until now, and even with the clause that was created to shut them out, the Left party has not withdrawn their support for the government: The alternative was clearly worse for them.

However, it seems that the Left party’s acquiescence is over, and that they’re even willing to accept support for their no-confidence motion from political opponents. The Sweden Democrats are already 100% behind the Left party’s idea, and even the Moderate Party is considering it. “We want to unseat all this government’s ministers, so it’s very likely that we’ll go along with a vote of no confidence” remarked Jimmie Åkesson, leader of the Sweden Democrats. Although reforming the Employment Service has been part of their platform for a long time, the Moderate party has problems with how it’s been implemented. Group leader for the Moderate party in Parliament, Tobias Billström, commented that although the Left and Moderate parties have very different ideas on how the Service should be run, the current plans for reforming it are “poorly thought out and badly instituted” and lack parliamentary support, to boot (SvD.se/Nordmark).

The question is what the government can do to appease the Left party, while not alienating the Center party. Also the Liberal party is left in a crunch situation: they went along with supporting a Social Democratic government largely to keep the Sweden Democrats isolated,and only as long as the January Agreement was upheld by all sides. If the government downshifts on its commitment to the agreement, the Liberals will be left hanging, and this when they are only just barely above the 4% threshold.

Sjöstedt has said that the government has two weeks to respond before he makes a no confidence motion.

Tag: sd