Increased pressure from political parties to ban conversion therapy

Multiple political parties want to ban so-called conversion therapy, which aims to change young LGBT+ individuals’ sexual orientation.

The Liberals have campaigned for a ban for some time, and a motion has now been submitted to parliament by the Social Democrats. Now, the Moderates and the Centre Party are joining them in calling for conversion therapy to be made illegal, Sweden’s public broadcaster Radio Ekot reports.

“The entire idea is that homosexuality is an illness which can and should be treated. That is, obviously, completely incorrect and a very out-of-place view in a modern society,” Centre’s spokesperson on legal issues, Johan Hedin, told the radio.

Conversion therapy consists of subjecting LGBT+ individuals to pressure or force to hide their sexuality or gender identity. According to MUCF, the Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society, it occurs “to a not insignificant extent” in Sweden.

“We think there should be a ban. Sweden should be a tolerant country, where nonsense like this quite simply shouldn’t be allowed to happen,” Johan Forssell, the Moderate’s legal spokesperson told Radio Ekot.

Swedish vocabulary: omvändelseterapi – conversion therapy

Swedish finance watchdog warns of possible ‘sharp fall’ in house prices

The Swedish financial supervisory authority warned this week that rising interest rates could hit households with large mortgages and lead to house prices falling “quite sharply”.

In the agency’s Swedish Mortgage Market 2022 Report, the authority, known in Swedish as Finansinspektionen (FI), reported that an increasing number of new borrowers had taken out large mortgages in relation to their income.

“Households with high debt ratios are particularly sensitive to rising interest rates, said Henrik Braconier, the authority’s chief economist.

As interest rates rise, FI also warned that house prices might fall.

“Now we can have a shift in the underlying factors that could affect housing prices downwards, potentially quite sharply downwards,” Erik Thedéen, the authority’s director-general, said at a press conference.

Here is The Local’s full article on the possible house price fall, as well as our explainer on the likelihood this will actually happen.

Swedish vocabulary: bostadspriser – house prices

Unemployment increasing amongst academics

For the first time since last year, the number of unemployed academics is increasing in Sweden, even though the increase is small.

In March, there was a net increase of 194 unemployed academics joining Akademikernas a-kassa, Sweden’s unemployment fund for people holding a university degree. This is the first time since July 2021 that this number has increased.

“We can’t comment yet on why we have an increase in unemployed members now and if it’s something which is going to continue,” said Alexandra Oljans Ahlin, communications officer at Akademikernas a-kassa, said in a press statement.

“But we have noticed from the questions we are getting from our members that there is some concern about the economic situation”.

In March 1,569 unemployed academics started working, the lowest number in two years.

However, there is positive news. Long-term unemployment among academics continues to decrease and since summer last year it has decreased by ten percent, according to Akademikernas a-kassa. However, the number of long-term unemployed is still around 50 percent higher than it was before the pandemic.

“Many are having a very hard time getting back into the labour market, and there are still a noticeably higher amount who have been unemployed for a longer period now than before the pandemic,” Ahlin said.

In total, 13,200 academics were unemployed in March, which represents 1.8 percent of Sweden’s academics. One year ago, 2.3 percent of academics were unemployed.