Today in Sweden: A roundup of the latest news on Monday
Energy guarantees, no threat to Swedish financial stability, and Sweden Democrats a "serious threat" to democracy. Here's Sweden's news on Monday.
Former Liberal Party leader warns of 'serious threat' from Sweden Democrats
Bengt Westerberg, who led the Liberal Party for twelve years between 1983 and 1995, has warned that the Sweden Democrats (SD) are "a serious threat to democracy" in a joint debate article written with former Swedish prime minister Stefan Löfven.
"An increased influence for SD definitely risks leading to the destruction of important democratic values," the two wrote in an article in the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.
They pointed to SD plans for restrictions on the freedom of public service media, depicting journalists as enemies of society, demands for party-political branding of journalists, reduction in press support, reduced support for student unions, calls to cut billions from the budget for public culture, removal of all books in foreign languages from libraries, prohibition of pride flags in public, discrimination against non-Swedish citizens, and questioning of diversity.
Westerberg wrote that he planned to vote for the Centre Party, as the party he used to lead (then called Folkpartiet), had now started cooperating with the Sweden Democrats.
Swedish vocab: nedskärningar – cuts
Sweden to issue guarantees worth ‘billions’ to energy groups
Sweden said on Saturday it would provide liquidity guarantees to Nordic and Baltic energy companies worth "billions of dollars" in a bid to prevent a financial crisis sparked by Europe's energy crunch.
Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson warned Sweden was facing the prospect of a “war winter”, and said the exact details of the guarantees remained to be worked out.
The announcement came after Russia said on Friday it was cutting off the Nord Stream gas pipeline to Germany indefinitely due to what it said were leaks in a turbine.
The closure is expected to lead to even higher production prices for electricity companies when the market opens on Monday.
Speaking to reporters, Andersson said the guarantees were aimed at giving energy groups “the breathing room that is needed”.
Swedish vocab: likviditetsgarantier – liquidity guarantees
'Financial stability not threatened': financial markets minister
A meeting of Sweden's Financial Stability Council has concluded that Sweden's financial stability is not threatened by problems in European energy trading systems, Sweden's finance markets minister, Max Elger, said on Sunday.
"We share the assessment that there is no threat to financial stability because we have provided a level of liquidity support which is sufficient to handle and isolate the problems we've identified in the energy derivatives market," he said after a meeting of the Financial Stability Council, which includes the government, the Riksbank, the Financial Supervisory Authority and the Swedish National Debt Office.
Sweden's parliament is due to vote on the support package on Monday.
Swedish vocab: likviditetsstöd – liquidity support
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Former Liberal Party leader warns of 'serious threat' from Sweden Democrats
Bengt Westerberg, who led the Liberal Party for twelve years between 1983 and 1995, has warned that the Sweden Democrats (SD) are "a serious threat to democracy" in a joint debate article written with former Swedish prime minister Stefan Löfven.
"An increased influence for SD definitely risks leading to the destruction of important democratic values," the two wrote in an article in the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.
They pointed to SD plans for restrictions on the freedom of public service media, depicting journalists as enemies of society, demands for party-political branding of journalists, reduction in press support, reduced support for student unions, calls to cut billions from the budget for public culture, removal of all books in foreign languages from libraries, prohibition of pride flags in public, discrimination against non-Swedish citizens, and questioning of diversity.
Westerberg wrote that he planned to vote for the Centre Party, as the party he used to lead (then called Folkpartiet), had now started cooperating with the Sweden Democrats.
Swedish vocab: nedskärningar – cuts
Sweden to issue guarantees worth ‘billions’ to energy groups
Sweden said on Saturday it would provide liquidity guarantees to Nordic and Baltic energy companies worth "billions of dollars" in a bid to prevent a financial crisis sparked by Europe's energy crunch.
Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson warned Sweden was facing the prospect of a “war winter”, and said the exact details of the guarantees remained to be worked out.
The announcement came after Russia said on Friday it was cutting off the Nord Stream gas pipeline to Germany indefinitely due to what it said were leaks in a turbine.
The closure is expected to lead to even higher production prices for electricity companies when the market opens on Monday.
Speaking to reporters, Andersson said the guarantees were aimed at giving energy groups “the breathing room that is needed”.
Swedish vocab: likviditetsgarantier – liquidity guarantees
'Financial stability not threatened': financial markets minister
A meeting of Sweden's Financial Stability Council has concluded that Sweden's financial stability is not threatened by problems in European energy trading systems, Sweden's finance markets minister, Max Elger, said on Sunday.
"We share the assessment that there is no threat to financial stability because we have provided a level of liquidity support which is sufficient to handle and isolate the problems we've identified in the energy derivatives market," he said after a meeting of the Financial Stability Council, which includes the government, the Riksbank, the Financial Supervisory Authority and the Swedish National Debt Office.
Sweden's parliament is due to vote on the support package on Monday.
Swedish vocab: likviditetsstöd – liquidity support
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