svensk politik Archives • Page 8 of 10 • SwedeInternational

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. 16/8 – an easier A?

The Swedish National Agency for Education (skolverket) announced today that they are looking to reformulate the current descriptions for what knowledge is required for each school subject grade. The Agency’s general director, Peter Fredriksson, made clear that the actual knowledge requirements (kunskapskrav) were not going to change, but that the wording was going to be reworked to make it easier for students, teachers and parents to understand. Another part of the reform aims to focus more on students’ factual knowledge, letting the current emphasis on analysis wait for later studies ().

In what would be truly light speed in parliamentary proceedings, the National Agency hopes to be able to roll out the changes by this time next year. The reason is not just that the current grading system has racked up complaints from all corners, but that the government is already in agreement with its coalition party the Greens, and its two cooperating parties, the Liberal and Center parties. The Liberal party has been gunning for taking on the school portfolio for a long time, though their hand in the previous curriculum was deemed to be fairly disastrous and an impetus to the fresh changes needed now. Schools were a priority for the previous Liberal Party leader Jan Björklund, but Sabuni’s view on the matter is unclear.

At any rate, no one thinks this is going to turn school results around, but it might make the grading system easier to understand, making happier students and voters.

Thurs. 15/8 – Denmark resists acclimatization

the Denmark-Sweden border
pic: bbc.co.uk

Denmark’s PM Mette Fredriksen announced yesterday afternoon that Denmark may soon be instituting border controls between Sweden and Denmark (). In remarks to the press, Fredriksen said that this latest incident, the large explosion at the Danish Tax Agency where two people were mildly injured, is the second time this summer a Swede has been involved in a serious crime in Denmark. (The first time that she alludes to was in June when two Swedes were killed outside of Copenhagen in a shooting that is understood to have been gang-related. ) There is no way, Fredriksen stated, that Denmark was going to get “acclimatized to explosions,” a sentence that many feel was an intentional jab at Sweden and its surprisingly common crime MO.

Sweden already has border checks by the Danish border in place, but this has been a one-way check, from the Danish border coming into Sweden. The criminal component of what is normally a job-related commute may now make controls mutual. Fredriksen isn’t after commuters, she says, but adds that “it can’t be so that people can travel from Sweden to Denmark and plant dynamite in Copenhagen” ().

The Prime Minister’s comments come on the heels of another testy exchange between Norway’s prime minister Erna Solberg and Swedish minister Anders Ygeman just the other day, regarding whose far-right extremists come from where (see this blog post). Fortunately for Fredriksen, the Swedish reponse was more tempered this time – Sweden’s Minister for Home Affairs Mikael Damberg said he could understand that Denmark would want to protect itself from criminals.

The 22-year old Swede who is in police custody and who is suspected of involvement in the explosion (the other Swedish suspect is still wanted and on the run), has requested that he not be extradited to Denmark, SvD reports (). Reports as to why are sketchy, but his request now has to be handled by the courts, and not by the police. This could take time.

It seems that Swedish commuters will have to be the ones to acclimatize – to border checks.

Wed. 14/8 – a suspended sentence

Finally. ASAP got a suspended sentence (villkorlig döm) which means that he doesn’t go to jail unless he commits another crime in the next two years. He also has to pay the guy he beat up 12,500 kronor (about 1250 USD) for pain and insult (yes, ASAP is guilty of assault – the self-defence argument didn’t cut it) . Both sides are thinking about taking it to the next level, the Swedish appeals court, but it seems doubtful that they’ll do that. In typical Swedish fashion, no one being 100% happy is the happy compromise.

Thurs. 13/8 – touchy at the top

Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg and
Swedish minister Anders Ygeman
pic: sverigesradio.se

Things got a little prickly after the Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg mentioned something along the lines of “you sure hear a lot of Swedish at those far-right extremist marches here in Norway.” Anders Ygeman, Minister for Energy and Digital Development and also Stefan Lofven’s right hand man, had his grade-school level response ready – basically “Oh yeah? Well, right back at you” ().

Ok, to be more exact, he said “sure, yes to Norwegian-Swedish cooperation, but when you’re talking about a government that works with the [far-right] Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet), and who has twice appointed Sylvi Listhaug as minister, maybe you should look in the mirror before looking over the border.”

It actually sounds a little cleverer in English, but is it really a good idea to lash out at your closest neighbour and call them names? It’s debatable. Sylvi Listhaug is pretty deplorable, no question, but Ygeman’s outburst was surprisingly puerile. Instead of taking the debate in an adult manner and actually being receptive to joining forces, he basically poked them with a stick. That isn’t the way to make friends and influence people. Maybe he had a bad day. We all have them, but we all aren’t so near to being Swedish prime minister, so not same-same.

More and better Swedish-Norwegian cooperation on meeting far-right extremism would be a great thing. Particularly because – guess who’s already cooperating? Swedish and Norwegian far-right extremists.

Fri. 9/8 – back where they belong

After nearly 70 years of lying in a museum, the skeletal remains of some 25 Sami were returned to their original burial place in Lycksele today. The remains were first dug up and transported to Umeå university in the 1950’s, and the Sami have been trying to get their people back since 2007. More Sami remains are still in the collections of 11 museums around the country, and efforts are being made to work out how the remains can be repatriated.

The Sami people, acknowledged as the north’s original inhabitants, are spread out over Norway, Finland and Sweden. How they have been treated in Sweden is probably the most shameful period of discrimination in Sweden’s history, a discrimination that many consider to be continuing, even if the most egregious discriminatory practices (read: name changes, language suppression, segregation and general separate-and-unequal practices on all societal fronts) have largely disappeared.

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.

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.

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?