Today in Sweden: A roundup of the latest news on Friday
Green manifesto, student housing shortage, and a party donation scandal: find out what's going on in Sweden with The Local's roundup
Green party calls for 100bn kronor a year 'green transition' spending
Sweden's Green Party has called for the Swedish government to invest 100 billion kronor a year into making Sweden green, as it launches its election manifesto.
"If we don't make these investments now, we're going to face much higher costs later on. We need to do a lot in a very short time," said Märta Stenevi, joint leader of the Green Party.
"The climate crisis is acute. Sweden needs a rapid and just transition," her co-leader, Per Bolund, said. "We do not have time to wait any more."
He pointed to the heatwaves, fires, and drought seen in much of the rest of Europe.
Swedish vocab: en omställning – a transition
Shortage of student housing as new term starts
Student organisations expect a severe shortage of student housing when the terms starts, due to a post-Covid effect which will see many who studied online last year arriving in the student cities of Lund and Uppsala to seek housing.
"We foresee a post-covid effect where many students who have previously studied via distance learning are now coming to return to Uppsala," said Alexander Wilson von Deurs, deputy chair of Uppsala student union. "Many international students are also going to come here again, which we are of course happy about, but it will add to the squeeze."
Around 50,000 students have been accepted to study in Uppsala this autumn, while there are only 12,000 available student flats.
Swedish vocab: ökat tryck – increased pressure
Five of Sweden's political parties discussed evading party financing laws
Five of the eight political parties in the Swedish parliament discussed evading party financing laws with a businessman secretly working with journalists, a new investigation by broadcaster TV4 has found.
The new law on donations to political parties which came into force in 2021 dictates that parties must declare all donations received from private individuals or businesses. Donators can remain anonymous, but only as long as their donation does not exceed 24,150 kronor (€2,281). Larger donations must be declared along with the name of the donor.
The Kalla Fakta team which produced the documentary hired two businessmen to call each parliamentary party and ask how they could donate half a million kronor, while staying anonymous. The conversations were recorded and meetings filmed with a hidden camera.
Three parties – the Centre Party, the Left Party and the Green Party – said that it wasn’t possible for the donor to remain anonymous.
But the other five parties – the Social Democrats, the Moderates, the Sweden Democrats, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals – suggested different ways of getting around the requirements.
“There’s every reason to demand moral and political responsibility,” political scientist Jonas Hinnfors said of how Sweden’s society should react to the investigation’s findings. “It’s a threat to democracy.”
Swedish vocab: att kringgå lagen – to evade (go around) the law
Turkey: Sweden’s planned extradition not enough to meet Nato pledge
Turkey's justice minister Thursday said on Thursday that Sweden's pledge to extradite a Turkish convict fell far short of Stockholm's commitments under a deal paving the way for its Nato membership bid.
Nato member Turkey is threatening to freeze Sweden’s attempts to join the Western defence alliance unless it extradites dozens of people Ankara accuses of “terrorism”.
A non-binding deal Sweden and fellow Nato aspirant Finland signed with Turkey in June commits them to “expeditiously and thoroughly” examine Ankara’s requests for suspects linked to a 2016 coup attempt and outlawed Kurdish militants.
The Swedish government said earlier this month that it would extradite Okan Kale — a man convicted of credit card fraud who appeared on a list of people sought by Ankara published by Turkish media.
Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told the conservative Milliyet news site that Sweden needed to do far more to win Turkey’s trust.
“If they think that by extraditing ordinary criminals to Turkey they will make us believe that they have fulfilled their promises, they are wrong,” Bozdag said in the first government response to the extradition decision. “Nobody should test Turkey.”
Swedish vocab: en överenskommelse – an agreement
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Green party calls for 100bn kronor a year 'green transition' spending
Sweden's Green Party has called for the Swedish government to invest 100 billion kronor a year into making Sweden green, as it launches its election manifesto.
"If we don't make these investments now, we're going to face much higher costs later on. We need to do a lot in a very short time," said Märta Stenevi, joint leader of the Green Party.
"The climate crisis is acute. Sweden needs a rapid and just transition," her co-leader, Per Bolund, said. "We do not have time to wait any more."
He pointed to the heatwaves, fires, and drought seen in much of the rest of Europe.
Swedish vocab: en omställning – a transition
Shortage of student housing as new term starts
Student organisations expect a severe shortage of student housing when the terms starts, due to a post-Covid effect which will see many who studied online last year arriving in the student cities of Lund and Uppsala to seek housing.
"We foresee a post-covid effect where many students who have previously studied via distance learning are now coming to return to Uppsala," said Alexander Wilson von Deurs, deputy chair of Uppsala student union. "Many international students are also going to come here again, which we are of course happy about, but it will add to the squeeze."
Around 50,000 students have been accepted to study in Uppsala this autumn, while there are only 12,000 available student flats.
Swedish vocab: ökat tryck – increased pressure
Five of Sweden's political parties discussed evading party financing laws
Five of the eight political parties in the Swedish parliament discussed evading party financing laws with a businessman secretly working with journalists, a new investigation by broadcaster TV4 has found.
The new law on donations to political parties which came into force in 2021 dictates that parties must declare all donations received from private individuals or businesses. Donators can remain anonymous, but only as long as their donation does not exceed 24,150 kronor (€2,281). Larger donations must be declared along with the name of the donor.
The Kalla Fakta team which produced the documentary hired two businessmen to call each parliamentary party and ask how they could donate half a million kronor, while staying anonymous. The conversations were recorded and meetings filmed with a hidden camera.
Three parties – the Centre Party, the Left Party and the Green Party – said that it wasn’t possible for the donor to remain anonymous.
But the other five parties – the Social Democrats, the Moderates, the Sweden Democrats, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals – suggested different ways of getting around the requirements.
“There’s every reason to demand moral and political responsibility,” political scientist Jonas Hinnfors said of how Sweden’s society should react to the investigation’s findings. “It’s a threat to democracy.”
Swedish vocab: att kringgå lagen – to evade (go around) the law
Turkey: Sweden’s planned extradition not enough to meet Nato pledge
Turkey's justice minister Thursday said on Thursday that Sweden's pledge to extradite a Turkish convict fell far short of Stockholm's commitments under a deal paving the way for its Nato membership bid.
Nato member Turkey is threatening to freeze Sweden’s attempts to join the Western defence alliance unless it extradites dozens of people Ankara accuses of “terrorism”.
A non-binding deal Sweden and fellow Nato aspirant Finland signed with Turkey in June commits them to “expeditiously and thoroughly” examine Ankara’s requests for suspects linked to a 2016 coup attempt and outlawed Kurdish militants.
The Swedish government said earlier this month that it would extradite Okan Kale — a man convicted of credit card fraud who appeared on a list of people sought by Ankara published by Turkish media.
Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told the conservative Milliyet news site that Sweden needed to do far more to win Turkey’s trust.
“If they think that by extraditing ordinary criminals to Turkey they will make us believe that they have fulfilled their promises, they are wrong,” Bozdag said in the first government response to the extradition decision. “Nobody should test Turkey.”
Swedish vocab: en överenskommelse – an agreement
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