Today in Sweden: A roundup of the latest news on Wednesday
A 'racist' tweet, welfare cap, and oil-fired power: find out what's going on in Sweden with The Local's roundup.
Magdalena Andersson 'deserves to be sacked'
The Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch savaged Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson over her party's failure to get violent crime under control in the first party leader debate since the summer.
"She has no solutions and deserves to get the sack," Busch said at the Expressen newspaper's debate, which was broadcast online.
"Criminality threatens the country as we know it," Moderate leader Ulf Kristersson added. "It's not getting better but only worse and worse."
Andersson agreed that gang crime was a serious threat, but said that politicians should listen to the experts.
"It's clear that we should listen to the police who say that we need to end segregation to stop new recruitment [to gangs]," she said.
Swedish vocab: att få sparken – to get the sack
'Next stop Kabul': Sweden Democrat slammed for 'racist' tweet
The Sweden Democrat MP Tobias Andersson has been criticised for a "disgraceful and racist" tweet in which he posted a picture of a train on the Stockholm Metro which the party has paid to have covered in its logo.
Calling the train the "return-migration train", he wrote: "You have a one-way ticket. Next stop Kabul!".
The Centre Party's leader Annie Lööf said that the tweet was "disgraceful and racist" while the Liberal Party's leader Johan Pehrson, who is hoping to join a government with Swedish Democrat support, said it was "tragic" and that Andersson "should be ashamed".
Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson denied that the tweet was racist.
"Return migration policies are not racist," he said. "Our return migration policies are built on being voluntary. It is a way of creating a better society for us and for those who have not found their place here."
Swedish vocab: ovärdigt – disgraceful
Moderates pledge to stop unemployment payments after a year
Sweden's Moderate Party has called for A-kassa, Sweden's system of subsidised unemployment insurance, to be limited to one year in a move aimed at speeding the return to work of those who have lost their jobs.
The party is also proposing a welfare cap, which will mean that the total amount of benefits someone on the state emergency unemployment benefit can receive cannot be more than 75 percent of an average starting salary (which today would be about 22,000 kronor per month).
"This is about breaking passivity by strengthening demands. We expect a lot of both people who are born here, and people who have come to Sweden," said the party's finance spokesperson Elisabeth Svantesson.
Swedish vocab: att bryta passiviteten – to break up the passivity
High power prices push Sweden to fire up oil-fired power plant
Uniper Energy has been firing up the oil-fired Karlshamnsverket power plant for much of the last week to meet high demand and benefit from record-high power prices in southern Sweden, the company has told Sweden's Aftonbladet newspaper.
"We've been running pretty regularly over the past week. This is today with the shortage of planned power production we have in southern Sweden today," Torbjörn Larsson, the company's press chief, told the newspaper.
The power station burns 70,000 litres of oil every hour.
Swedish vocab: brist – shortage
Man behind stabbing at Swedish political festival admits to terror crimes
Forensic psychiatrists have diagnosed the 33-year-old as severely mentally disturbed, both at the time of his attack on Ing-Marie Wieselgren, and when they carried out their assessment.
On Tuesday, the prosecutor Henrik Olin said that Engström was “ready to take on responsibility for these suspected crimes”, which include “terrorism” and “preparation to commit terrorism through preparing a murder.”
"Of course, we need to take what he’s saying a little bit carefully given the background of the conclusions of the forensic psychiatrists’ investigation.”
A court ruled on Tuesday that the man could remain in pre-trial detention until September 15th.
Swedish vocab: brottsmisstankar – suspected crimes
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Magdalena Andersson 'deserves to be sacked'
The Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch savaged Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson over her party's failure to get violent crime under control in the first party leader debate since the summer.
"She has no solutions and deserves to get the sack," Busch said at the Expressen newspaper's debate, which was broadcast online.
"Criminality threatens the country as we know it," Moderate leader Ulf Kristersson added. "It's not getting better but only worse and worse."
Andersson agreed that gang crime was a serious threat, but said that politicians should listen to the experts.
"It's clear that we should listen to the police who say that we need to end segregation to stop new recruitment [to gangs]," she said.
Swedish vocab: att få sparken – to get the sack
'Next stop Kabul': Sweden Democrat slammed for 'racist' tweet
The Sweden Democrat MP Tobias Andersson has been criticised for a "disgraceful and racist" tweet in which he posted a picture of a train on the Stockholm Metro which the party has paid to have covered in its logo.
Calling the train the "return-migration train", he wrote: "You have a one-way ticket. Next stop Kabul!".
The Centre Party's leader Annie Lööf said that the tweet was "disgraceful and racist" while the Liberal Party's leader Johan Pehrson, who is hoping to join a government with Swedish Democrat support, said it was "tragic" and that Andersson "should be ashamed".
Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson denied that the tweet was racist.
"Return migration policies are not racist," he said. "Our return migration policies are built on being voluntary. It is a way of creating a better society for us and for those who have not found their place here."
Swedish vocab: ovärdigt – disgraceful
Moderates pledge to stop unemployment payments after a year
Sweden's Moderate Party has called for A-kassa, Sweden's system of subsidised unemployment insurance, to be limited to one year in a move aimed at speeding the return to work of those who have lost their jobs.
The party is also proposing a welfare cap, which will mean that the total amount of benefits someone on the state emergency unemployment benefit can receive cannot be more than 75 percent of an average starting salary (which today would be about 22,000 kronor per month).
"This is about breaking passivity by strengthening demands. We expect a lot of both people who are born here, and people who have come to Sweden," said the party's finance spokesperson Elisabeth Svantesson.
Swedish vocab: att bryta passiviteten – to break up the passivity
High power prices push Sweden to fire up oil-fired power plant
Uniper Energy has been firing up the oil-fired Karlshamnsverket power plant for much of the last week to meet high demand and benefit from record-high power prices in southern Sweden, the company has told Sweden's Aftonbladet newspaper.
"We've been running pretty regularly over the past week. This is today with the shortage of planned power production we have in southern Sweden today," Torbjörn Larsson, the company's press chief, told the newspaper.
The power station burns 70,000 litres of oil every hour.
Swedish vocab: brist – shortage
Man behind stabbing at Swedish political festival admits to terror crimes
Forensic psychiatrists have diagnosed the 33-year-old as severely mentally disturbed, both at the time of his attack on Ing-Marie Wieselgren, and when they carried out their assessment.
On Tuesday, the prosecutor Henrik Olin said that Engström was “ready to take on responsibility for these suspected crimes”, which include “terrorism” and “preparation to commit terrorism through preparing a murder.”
"Of course, we need to take what he’s saying a little bit carefully given the background of the conclusions of the forensic psychiatrists’ investigation.”
A court ruled on Tuesday that the man could remain in pre-trial detention until September 15th.
Swedish vocab: brottsmisstankar – suspected crimes
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