Today in Sweden: A roundup of the latest news on Wednesday
No Nato nuclear exception, swords and bow and arrow at Almedalen attack, Moderates attack broken electricity election pledge, and businesses slam work permit salary threshold: find out what's going on in Sweden with The Local's roundup.
Sweden will not demand Nato nuclear weapons exception
Sweden's new prime minister Ulf Kristersson has said that Sweden will not demand any formal exceptions -- such as a stipulation that no nuclear weapons be stationed on Swedish territory -- when it goes into Nato.
But at the same time, he said Sweden could have a similar arrangement to Denmark and Norway, who do not want to have nuclear weapons on their territories in peacetime.
Kristersson said it was important to recognise Nato's so-called "nuclear umbrella".
"This is protection which democracies need when there are other countries with nuclear weapons," he said. "That's something that Sweden will of course not set itself against. Then, of course, we would all like to have a world free of nuclear weapons, if it were possible."
Kristersson's statement came after Micael Bydén, the Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed Forces, advised Sweden's government not to make any demands for a nuclear exception.
Swedish vocab: kärnvapenparaply -- nuclear umbrella
Swedish extremist 'bought swords and bow for Almedalen attack'
Theodor Engström, the far-right extremist who fatally stabbed one of Sweden's leading psychiatrists at the Almedalen political festival, had brought two swords and a bow and arrow to Visby to carry out his attack, prosecution documents revealed on Tuesday.
The prosecutor Henrik Olin on Tuesday morning charged the 33-year-old with committing a terror crime through murder for stabbing Ing-Marie Wieselgren, and also for preparation for a terror crime for his alleged plot to kill the Centre Party leader Annie Lööf.
In the prosecution document, it states that Engström began preparing for his attack on June 20th, and had purchased a double-bladed knife, two swords and a bow and arrow, which he had left in the tent where he was staying at the time he stabbed Wieselgren. He had also collected together information on where Lööf would be during the festival.
In a press release, the court said that Engström, who psychiatrists have concluded was severely disturbed at the time of the attack, will go on trial between November 9th and November 15th. Engström has a background in the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement.
Swedish vocab: pil och båge – bow and arrow (literally arrow and bow)
Top Moderates accuse government of ‘breaking promise’ on power prices
Leading Moderate Party politicians in Skåne have attacked the new government for failing to deliver the promised support to those suffering sky high power bills in the southern Swedish county.
“This is not the high-cost protection we were promised and which we promised our voters,” Carl Johan Sonesson, the Moderate head of Skåne’s regional government wrote in the Expressen newspaper, together with Carina Wutzler, mayor of Vellinge, Christian Sonesson, mayor of Staffanstorp, and Anna Jähnke, the councillor in charge of regional development.
The four politicians, some of the most powerful Moderates in the region, said that when Energy and Business minister Ebba Busch announced the government’s plans to support those facing power high power prices, they had been astonished.
“There were many of us among the Moderates in Skåne who both raised our eyebrows and needed to listen again before we understood that what was being presented was something completely different from what we had been promised,” they wrote.
“Instead of high-cost protection for the coming winter, what was presented was a system of repayments for the year which has already passed.”
Swedish vocab: högkostnadsskydd – high cost protection
Swedish businesses attack plan to hike work permit salary threshold
Sweden's service sector trade body has denounced government plans to bring in a 33,200 kronor salary threshold for work permits as "completely objectionable", warning that it was wishful thinking to expect the foreign workers lost to be replaced by the unemployed.
Almega, which represents businesses in IT, telecoms, engineering, architecture, media, private healthcare, train operations, and security, among other industries, said that its members would be severely affected by the plan to limit work permits to more highly paid employees, with about 10,000 people currently living in Sweden on a work permit forced to leave the country.
“The proposal is motivated by the idea that these jobs should be done by unemployed people already in the country,” the trade body’s chief executive Ann Öberg and two colleagues wrote in an opinion piece in the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.
“But this is significantly easier said than done. Recruiting labour from a country outside the EU already takes a lot more time than to employ someone living in the country. Our member companies’ first choice is always to recruit in Sweden.”
It would, they said, be “extremely unfortunate” if the government were to tighten up labour immigration without first reforming the tax and welfare system in Sweden to increase the incentives for people to work.
Swedish vocab: förkastlig – objectionable
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Sweden will not demand Nato nuclear weapons exception
Sweden's new prime minister Ulf Kristersson has said that Sweden will not demand any formal exceptions -- such as a stipulation that no nuclear weapons be stationed on Swedish territory -- when it goes into Nato.
But at the same time, he said Sweden could have a similar arrangement to Denmark and Norway, who do not want to have nuclear weapons on their territories in peacetime.
Kristersson said it was important to recognise Nato's so-called "nuclear umbrella".
"This is protection which democracies need when there are other countries with nuclear weapons," he said. "That's something that Sweden will of course not set itself against. Then, of course, we would all like to have a world free of nuclear weapons, if it were possible."
Kristersson's statement came after Micael Bydén, the Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed Forces, advised Sweden's government not to make any demands for a nuclear exception.
Swedish vocab: kärnvapenparaply -- nuclear umbrella
Swedish extremist 'bought swords and bow for Almedalen attack'
Theodor Engström, the far-right extremist who fatally stabbed one of Sweden's leading psychiatrists at the Almedalen political festival, had brought two swords and a bow and arrow to Visby to carry out his attack, prosecution documents revealed on Tuesday.
The prosecutor Henrik Olin on Tuesday morning charged the 33-year-old with committing a terror crime through murder for stabbing Ing-Marie Wieselgren, and also for preparation for a terror crime for his alleged plot to kill the Centre Party leader Annie Lööf.
In the prosecution document, it states that Engström began preparing for his attack on June 20th, and had purchased a double-bladed knife, two swords and a bow and arrow, which he had left in the tent where he was staying at the time he stabbed Wieselgren. He had also collected together information on where Lööf would be during the festival.
In a press release, the court said that Engström, who psychiatrists have concluded was severely disturbed at the time of the attack, will go on trial between November 9th and November 15th. Engström has a background in the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement.
Swedish vocab: pil och båge – bow and arrow (literally arrow and bow)
Top Moderates accuse government of ‘breaking promise’ on power prices
Leading Moderate Party politicians in Skåne have attacked the new government for failing to deliver the promised support to those suffering sky high power bills in the southern Swedish county.
“This is not the high-cost protection we were promised and which we promised our voters,” Carl Johan Sonesson, the Moderate head of Skåne’s regional government wrote in the Expressen newspaper, together with Carina Wutzler, mayor of Vellinge, Christian Sonesson, mayor of Staffanstorp, and Anna Jähnke, the councillor in charge of regional development.
The four politicians, some of the most powerful Moderates in the region, said that when Energy and Business minister Ebba Busch announced the government’s plans to support those facing power high power prices, they had been astonished.
“There were many of us among the Moderates in Skåne who both raised our eyebrows and needed to listen again before we understood that what was being presented was something completely different from what we had been promised,” they wrote.
“Instead of high-cost protection for the coming winter, what was presented was a system of repayments for the year which has already passed.”
Swedish vocab: högkostnadsskydd – high cost protection
Swedish businesses attack plan to hike work permit salary threshold
Sweden's service sector trade body has denounced government plans to bring in a 33,200 kronor salary threshold for work permits as "completely objectionable", warning that it was wishful thinking to expect the foreign workers lost to be replaced by the unemployed.
Almega, which represents businesses in IT, telecoms, engineering, architecture, media, private healthcare, train operations, and security, among other industries, said that its members would be severely affected by the plan to limit work permits to more highly paid employees, with about 10,000 people currently living in Sweden on a work permit forced to leave the country.
“The proposal is motivated by the idea that these jobs should be done by unemployed people already in the country,” the trade body’s chief executive Ann Öberg and two colleagues wrote in an opinion piece in the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.
“But this is significantly easier said than done. Recruiting labour from a country outside the EU already takes a lot more time than to employ someone living in the country. Our member companies’ first choice is always to recruit in Sweden.”
It would, they said, be “extremely unfortunate” if the government were to tighten up labour immigration without first reforming the tax and welfare system in Sweden to increase the incentives for people to work.
Swedish vocab: förkastlig – objectionable
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