Sweden’s new PM warns gang crime ‘may get worse before it gets better’
Sweden's incoming Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has warned that the new government's chief priority of tackling gang crime will not be easy, with a risk of "a lot of conflict when the power of the criminal gangs is threatened".
In a speech in parliament outlining the government’s programme, Kristersson said his government would aim to “lay the groundwork for solving the big problems in Swedish society”.
“Let me say it bluntly. The government which is now taking power, is taking over a country which stands in the middle of many parallel crises,” he said.
No other country in Europe was faced with as severe a problem with gang criminality as that faced by Sweden today, he warned, with gang crime now “a threat to society”.
The solution, he said was to follow the hardline approach to gang crime enacted in Denmark in recent years, with “Danish measures against Swedish crime”.
“There is going to be a lot of conflict when the power of the criminal gangs is threatened. It could get worse before it gets better.”
After his speech, which you can read in English here, Kristersson announced his new ministers, and the new government will then walk to the Royal Palace where they will meet King Carl XVI Gustav to be formally instated.
Swedish vocab: Danska insatser – Danish measures
Sweden’s new government to abolish stand-alone Environment Ministry
Sweden's new government will abolish the country's environment ministry and instead place it under a newly formed Ministry for Climate and Business.
In addition, the country’s new Climate and Environment Minister is 26-year-old Romina Pourmokhtari, the former head of the Liberal Party’s youth organisation.
Ebba Busch, Sweden’s new minister of Energy and Business, who will oversee Pourmokhtari, said after her appointment that in her opinion environmental issues “had been given too much weight” in previous governments. “If we want to solve climate issues, it’s about transforming industry and the transport sector,” she said.
The joint leaders of Sweden’s Green Party were scathing about the decision to scrap a ministry that has helped put Sweden at the forefront of the battle against climate change, ever since it was established back in 1987.
“This is a historic decision which is going to have devastating consequences for environmental issues,” said Per Bolund. “It is impossible to get a clearer description of how low this government ranks the environment and the climate.”
Swedish vocab: vägt för tungt – given too much weight
Sweden's new school minister is shareholder and board member in free school chain
Sweden's new school minister Lotta Edholm is both a shareowner and a board member in Tellusgruppen, which runs 25 kindergartens, and seven primary schools in Sweden.
"I will of course sell my shares immediately and resign from the board," Edholm told the TT newswire.
Edholm was the city councillor in Stockholm responsible for schools until 2020, and joined the board of Tellusgruppen last year.
She has shares in the company worth a little under 100,000 kronor. Shares in the company soared 12 percent on her appointment.
Swedish vocab: styrelsemedlem – board member
Delayed train plan published so Christmas tickets can be released
The Swedish Transport Administration has released its 2023 Tågplanen, or Train Plan, which will allow Sweden's state-owned rail company SJ to finally release tickets for Christmas, but, according to SJ, it will still take some time to open Christmas seats for booking.
Christmas tickets are normally on sale from September, but so far SJ has only opened up bookings up until December 10th.
This is because the Train Plan which coordinates the times for all passenger and goods trains in Sweden, has been delayed due to the Transport Administration's change over to a digital system.
The administration's Director General Roberto Maiorana said the new system represented a "paradigm shift".
"We are moving from working with paper and pens to carrying all this out in a digital environment. Carrying out this change is not without its challenges and that has had an impact on the time it takes to complete the task," he said.
Martina Nord, SJ's press spokesperson, said that the company was now working as "fast as we can" to release tickets but could give no firm date for when Christmas tickets would be released.
Swedish vocab: en utmaning – a challenge
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