Today in Sweden: A roundup of the latest news on Thursday
Sweden 'to address Turkey's Nato concerns', China's Stockholm police station, EU approves snus buyout, Social Democrat leader backs migration crackdown: find out what's going on in Sweden with The Local's roundup.
Sweden 'to address Turkey’s concerns over Nato'
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said on Tuesday the new government was committed to overcoming Turkey's objections to Sweden's historic bid to join Nato.
After Russia invaded Ukraine, Sweden and Finland tore up their long-standing policies of military non-alignment and asked to join the US-led military alliance.
The move has strong backing from most Nato members.
But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has objected, accusing the Nordic neighbours of harbouring Kurdish militants hostile to Ankara, especially supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
“We will be able to fulfil the memorandum and its items. I’m quite sure of that,” Billström said of an agreement Sweden and Finland signed with Turkey in June designed to iron out the concerns.
Billström told AFP in an interview that Sweden backed the stance Turkey and the European Union have taken on the PKK.
He said the group was “terrorist through and through” and Sweden respected Turkey’s security concerns.
But the new top diplomat, who took office last week, also stressed, “It’s necessary to have a balance of freedom of expression.”
Swedish vocab: uppfylla – to fulfil
China accused of running an illegal police station in Stockholm
Chinese police has been accused of running an illegal, unofficial police station in Stockholm which they used to force those suspected of crimes in China to return home for trial.
According to the rights organisation Safeguard Defenders, the Stockholm station, run in a hotel in the west of Stockholm, is one of 50 international police offices operated by Chinese police in 30 counties.
Peter Dahlin, the Swedish man who runs Safeguard Defenders, told TT that the report's findings were entirely based on information publicly available in Chinese government sites, police sites, or in China's official media.
Dahlin, who previously ran the rights group China Action, was arrested in 2016 in Beijing, forced to confess to espionage on state TV and deported out of the country.
According to the report the police centres are used to put pressure on exiled Chinese citizens.
Swedish vocab: påtryckning – pressure
EU approves buyout of Swedish Match tobacco company
The EU commission on Tuesday approved Philip Morris International's purchase of smokeless tobacco company Swedish Match, after the Marlboro cigarette maker agreed to sell off a tobacco distribution business in Sweden.
With the green light from Brussels, Philip Morris passed a key hurdle as the US group looks to steer away from its traditional cigarette business.
To secure the $16 billion deal, Philip Morris International offered to divest SMD Logistics, an arm of Swedish Match that gave it “a de facto monopoly on distribution of tobacco and nicotine products in Sweden,” the EU’s antitrust enforcer said in a statement.
The transaction is not yet final, and Philip Morris increased its offer for Swedish Match on October 20th in order to win over investor holdouts.
Swedish vocab: ett uppköp – a buyout/acquisition
Social Democrat leader backs Sweden’s harsh new immigration policies
The leader of Sweden's Social Democrat opposition has backed the harsh new policies on crime and immigration included in the new government's programme, and even signalled openness to the much-criticised begging ban.
In an interview with the Expressen newspaper, Magdalena Andersson said her party was absolutely agreed on the need for a stricter immigration policy for Sweden, going so far as to take credit for the Social Democrats for the illiberal shift.
“There is absolutely no question that we need a strict set of migration laws,” she told the Expressen newspaper, rejecting the claims of Sweden Democrat Jimmie Åkesson that the government’s new program represented a “paradigm shift in migration policy”.
“The paradigm shift happened in 2015, and it was us who carried it out,” she said. “The big rearrangement of migration policy was carried out by us Social Democrats after the refugee crisis of 2015, with a thorough tightening-up of the policy.”
She said that her party would wait and see what “concrete proposals” the new government ended up making, but she said the Social Democrats were not in principle against even the new government’s most criticised proposal: to slash the number of UN quota refugees from around 5,000 to 900.
“That’s something we are going to look at,” she said. “It’s been at different levels at different points of time in Sweden.”
Swedish vocab: ingen tvivel – no doubt/no question
Comments
See Also
Sweden 'to address Turkey’s concerns over Nato'
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said on Tuesday the new government was committed to overcoming Turkey's objections to Sweden's historic bid to join Nato.
After Russia invaded Ukraine, Sweden and Finland tore up their long-standing policies of military non-alignment and asked to join the US-led military alliance.
The move has strong backing from most Nato members.
But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has objected, accusing the Nordic neighbours of harbouring Kurdish militants hostile to Ankara, especially supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
“We will be able to fulfil the memorandum and its items. I’m quite sure of that,” Billström said of an agreement Sweden and Finland signed with Turkey in June designed to iron out the concerns.
Billström told AFP in an interview that Sweden backed the stance Turkey and the European Union have taken on the PKK.
He said the group was “terrorist through and through” and Sweden respected Turkey’s security concerns.
But the new top diplomat, who took office last week, also stressed, “It’s necessary to have a balance of freedom of expression.”
Swedish vocab: uppfylla – to fulfil
China accused of running an illegal police station in Stockholm
Chinese police has been accused of running an illegal, unofficial police station in Stockholm which they used to force those suspected of crimes in China to return home for trial.
According to the rights organisation Safeguard Defenders, the Stockholm station, run in a hotel in the west of Stockholm, is one of 50 international police offices operated by Chinese police in 30 counties.
Peter Dahlin, the Swedish man who runs Safeguard Defenders, told TT that the report's findings were entirely based on information publicly available in Chinese government sites, police sites, or in China's official media.
Dahlin, who previously ran the rights group China Action, was arrested in 2016 in Beijing, forced to confess to espionage on state TV and deported out of the country.
According to the report the police centres are used to put pressure on exiled Chinese citizens.
Swedish vocab: påtryckning – pressure
EU approves buyout of Swedish Match tobacco company
The EU commission on Tuesday approved Philip Morris International's purchase of smokeless tobacco company Swedish Match, after the Marlboro cigarette maker agreed to sell off a tobacco distribution business in Sweden.
With the green light from Brussels, Philip Morris passed a key hurdle as the US group looks to steer away from its traditional cigarette business.
To secure the $16 billion deal, Philip Morris International offered to divest SMD Logistics, an arm of Swedish Match that gave it “a de facto monopoly on distribution of tobacco and nicotine products in Sweden,” the EU’s antitrust enforcer said in a statement.
The transaction is not yet final, and Philip Morris increased its offer for Swedish Match on October 20th in order to win over investor holdouts.
Swedish vocab: ett uppköp – a buyout/acquisition
Social Democrat leader backs Sweden’s harsh new immigration policies
The leader of Sweden's Social Democrat opposition has backed the harsh new policies on crime and immigration included in the new government's programme, and even signalled openness to the much-criticised begging ban.
In an interview with the Expressen newspaper, Magdalena Andersson said her party was absolutely agreed on the need for a stricter immigration policy for Sweden, going so far as to take credit for the Social Democrats for the illiberal shift.
“There is absolutely no question that we need a strict set of migration laws,” she told the Expressen newspaper, rejecting the claims of Sweden Democrat Jimmie Åkesson that the government’s new program represented a “paradigm shift in migration policy”.
“The paradigm shift happened in 2015, and it was us who carried it out,” she said. “The big rearrangement of migration policy was carried out by us Social Democrats after the refugee crisis of 2015, with a thorough tightening-up of the policy.”
She said that her party would wait and see what “concrete proposals” the new government ended up making, but she said the Social Democrats were not in principle against even the new government’s most criticised proposal: to slash the number of UN quota refugees from around 5,000 to 900.
“That’s something we are going to look at,” she said. “It’s been at different levels at different points of time in Sweden.”
Swedish vocab: ingen tvivel – no doubt/no question
Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.
Please log in here to leave a comment.