Today in Sweden: A roundup of the latest news on Thursday
War letters to 16-year-olds, prison service complains of government plans, Liberals battle exclusion from EU group, and far-right MP denies climate crisis: find out what's going on in Sweden with The Local's roundup.
Sweden sends out letters to all 16-year-olds on their duties in a war
Sweden's Civil Contingencies Agency has sent out 120,000 letters to 16-year-olds in Sweden, informing them that they can be drafted to aid Sweden's system of Total Defence in the event of war or imminent war.
They can, for example, be ordered to distribute food and water, point people the way to various locations during evacuations, or to hand out information.
"From the time you are 16 until you are 70, you are covered by the duty to contribute to Total Defence," Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, the agency's Director General, told SVT. "So we need to reach young people who perhaps aren't aware of what they might be expected to do."
Swedish vocab: i krigsfara – in danger of war
Swedish prison service warns of "massive effect" from new government programme
The Director General of Sweden's prison service, Martin Holmgren, has warned that the new crime laws in the new government's programme risks putting pressure on an organisation that is already struggling to provide sufficient places in prisons and pre-trial detention facilities.
"There are a huge number of proposals, which, if the are carried out, will mean that we are going to have both more people in pre-trial detention and more people sentenced to prison," Holmgren told the TT newswire. "Already now, in the autumn of 2022, we have very tight margins."
He said the prison service was already having to make prisoners and those in pre-trial detention share cells.
He said he was most critical of the proposal to get rid of early release, a move he said would lead to "many more prison years" for the system to handle.
Swedish vocab: massiv påverkan – the huge impact
Swedish Liberals face expulsion from EU’s liberal party group
The Liberal Party's colleagues in Renew Europe, the EU parliament's liberal party group, are considering excluding the Swedish party from their group due to their cooperation with the Sweden Democrats, with the Swedish media talking of an "EU rage" against the party.
“The Swedish situation is not satisfactory – that’s the least you can say,” the leader of the group, French MEP Stéphane Séjourné said in a press briefing in Strasbourg.
Discussions are now ongoing in the Renew Europe group (RE) as to whether there is sufficient reason to expel the Liberals and their MEP Karin Karlsbro.
At a meeting in Brussels in his new role as Sweden’s Employment Minister, Liberal leader Johan Pehrson described it as “unthinkable” that his party colleague Karlsbro could be forced to leave the group, adding that his party “takes the criticism seriously”.
However, Pehrson stated that he has attempted to explain the situation to his liberal colleagues in Europe.
“I’m trying to explain what an exceptionally strong document we’ve produced, in the form of a governing document which shows meaningful liberal reforms in Sweden – but that means less migration. That’s also true,” he told TT newswire and public broadcaster Sveriges Radio in Brussels.
Swedish vocab: EU-ilska – EU rage
Sweden Democrat slammed for denying climate crisis in parliament
The new Sweden Democrat MP Elsa Widding has been attacked as "shameful" and "deplorable", for denying the climate crisis in her maiden speech in the country's parliament.
In her speech, Widding, a civil engineer educated at Chalmers University of Technology, said that a warming planet would have advantages as well as disadvantages, and that there was no clear scientific backing for the climate crisis.
“I believe that there is a lack of scientific evidence for saying that we find ourselves in a climate crisis,” she said. “The last time that was the case was in the 1960s when summers either stopped or became so short that we couldn’t produce a harvest.”
She claimed that every piece of action Sweden is taking to combat climate change is simply “gesture politics”, and that even if Sweden cut its greenhouse gas emissions to zero, it would only shave 0.0027˚C from global temperatures. She called for an end to the “religion” of climate policy and campaigning.
Markus Selin, an MP for the Social Democrats called Widding’s statement “deplorable” and said he was “ashamed” to hear it.
Swedish vocab: bedrövlig – deplorable
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Sweden sends out letters to all 16-year-olds on their duties in a war
Sweden's Civil Contingencies Agency has sent out 120,000 letters to 16-year-olds in Sweden, informing them that they can be drafted to aid Sweden's system of Total Defence in the event of war or imminent war.
They can, for example, be ordered to distribute food and water, point people the way to various locations during evacuations, or to hand out information.
"From the time you are 16 until you are 70, you are covered by the duty to contribute to Total Defence," Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, the agency's Director General, told SVT. "So we need to reach young people who perhaps aren't aware of what they might be expected to do."
Swedish vocab: i krigsfara – in danger of war
Swedish prison service warns of "massive effect" from new government programme
The Director General of Sweden's prison service, Martin Holmgren, has warned that the new crime laws in the new government's programme risks putting pressure on an organisation that is already struggling to provide sufficient places in prisons and pre-trial detention facilities.
"There are a huge number of proposals, which, if the are carried out, will mean that we are going to have both more people in pre-trial detention and more people sentenced to prison," Holmgren told the TT newswire. "Already now, in the autumn of 2022, we have very tight margins."
He said the prison service was already having to make prisoners and those in pre-trial detention share cells.
He said he was most critical of the proposal to get rid of early release, a move he said would lead to "many more prison years" for the system to handle.
Swedish vocab: massiv påverkan – the huge impact
Swedish Liberals face expulsion from EU’s liberal party group
The Liberal Party's colleagues in Renew Europe, the EU parliament's liberal party group, are considering excluding the Swedish party from their group due to their cooperation with the Sweden Democrats, with the Swedish media talking of an "EU rage" against the party.
“The Swedish situation is not satisfactory – that’s the least you can say,” the leader of the group, French MEP Stéphane Séjourné said in a press briefing in Strasbourg.
Discussions are now ongoing in the Renew Europe group (RE) as to whether there is sufficient reason to expel the Liberals and their MEP Karin Karlsbro.
At a meeting in Brussels in his new role as Sweden’s Employment Minister, Liberal leader Johan Pehrson described it as “unthinkable” that his party colleague Karlsbro could be forced to leave the group, adding that his party “takes the criticism seriously”.
However, Pehrson stated that he has attempted to explain the situation to his liberal colleagues in Europe.
“I’m trying to explain what an exceptionally strong document we’ve produced, in the form of a governing document which shows meaningful liberal reforms in Sweden – but that means less migration. That’s also true,” he told TT newswire and public broadcaster Sveriges Radio in Brussels.
Swedish vocab: EU-ilska – EU rage
Sweden Democrat slammed for denying climate crisis in parliament
The new Sweden Democrat MP Elsa Widding has been attacked as "shameful" and "deplorable", for denying the climate crisis in her maiden speech in the country's parliament.
In her speech, Widding, a civil engineer educated at Chalmers University of Technology, said that a warming planet would have advantages as well as disadvantages, and that there was no clear scientific backing for the climate crisis.
“I believe that there is a lack of scientific evidence for saying that we find ourselves in a climate crisis,” she said. “The last time that was the case was in the 1960s when summers either stopped or became so short that we couldn’t produce a harvest.”
She claimed that every piece of action Sweden is taking to combat climate change is simply “gesture politics”, and that even if Sweden cut its greenhouse gas emissions to zero, it would only shave 0.0027˚C from global temperatures. She called for an end to the “religion” of climate policy and campaigning.
Markus Selin, an MP for the Social Democrats called Widding’s statement “deplorable” and said he was “ashamed” to hear it.
Swedish vocab: bedrövlig – deplorable
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