Today in Sweden: A roundup of the latest news on Thursday
Trio jailed for drive-by shooting of 12-year-old Adriana, Swedish PM downplays Sweden Democrat threats, Swedish foreign minister says Kurdish PKK group 'a bigger threat than we realised'. Here's the main news on Thursday.
Swedish PM dismisses talk of government crisis
Sweden's prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, has dismissed the risk of a near-term government crisis, following threatening statements from two heavyweights in the far-right Sweden Democrats, on whose support Kristersson's government is dependent.
"I think that all of you in the media have a tendency to overdramatise this quite a bit," Kristersson said. "Taken altogether the cooperation is working remarkably well."
Oscar Sjöstedt, the Sweden Democrats' economic spokesperson, said earlier this month that there would be a "a government crisis" if the government did not bring in "pretty significant and substantial" reductions in the biogas obligation at the start of next year.
Mattias Karlsson, the party's former group leader, then wrote in a late night tweet that if the EU migration pact passed by the EU parliament became reality, he found it hard to see "how the common ground of our cooperation could remain", with the party's leader Jimmie Åkesson then backing up Karlsson's statement.
Swedish vocabulary: samarbete – cooperation
Trio in Sweden jailed for drive-by shooting of 12-year-old girl
A Swedish court on Wednesday sentenced three men to life in prison for killing a 12-year-old girl in a drive-by shooting that has become emblematic of Sweden's soaring gang violence.
The shooting outside a fast-food restaurant south of Stockholm in August, 2020 shocked the Nordic nation, with two stray bullets hitting Adriana Ostrowska Naghei, 12, who later died from her injuries.
The Södertorn district court convicted the three men of murder and attempted murder of seven others at the scene, including two whom the court concluded were the actual targets.
"It was a case of indiscriminate firing with automatic weapons in a place where there were several people and one of them died. The punishment can therefore only be life imprisonment," judge Tore Gissin said in a statement.
Swedish vocabulary: urskillningslös automateld -– indiscriminate firing with automatic weapons
Swedish foreign minister says PKK terror group 'a bigger problem than we realised'
Sweden's foreign minister Tobias Billström has called on a tougher crackdown on PKK, the Kurdish separatist terror group, saying that the group's activities in Sweden's territory were "extensive".
"Extensive operations are active to gather in money and to finance terror activities which are directed at another country, Turkey," he told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper in an interview.
He said that the terror group's fingers extended into gang crime in Sweden, and that Sweden was a base for PKK activities in protection rackets, drug selling and "a whole range of things which damage Swedish society".
"We have only things to gain by cooperating with Turkish authorities when it comes to sharing information and surveillance of organised crime," he said. "But we also have a responsibility towards Turkey to get a hold of this problem."
Swedish Vocabulary: beskyddarverksamhet – a protection racket
Highest since 2008: Swedish key interest rate hits 3.5 percent
Sweden's central bank, the Riksbank, hiked the key interest rate by 0.5 percentage points to 3.5 percent in a so-called "double hike", while predicting a further 25 point hike in June or September.
After Wednesday's rate hike, Sweden's key interest rate is now at the highest level since October 2008.
Two members of the Riksbank's board - Anna Breman and Martin Flodén - were against the double hike, instead lobbying for a smaller 0.25 percentage point increase.
The 0.5 percentage point increase was however in line with expectations, motivated by unusually high inflation.
Swedish Vocabulary: en dubbelhöjning – a double hike
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Swedish PM dismisses talk of government crisis
Sweden's prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, has dismissed the risk of a near-term government crisis, following threatening statements from two heavyweights in the far-right Sweden Democrats, on whose support Kristersson's government is dependent.
"I think that all of you in the media have a tendency to overdramatise this quite a bit," Kristersson said. "Taken altogether the cooperation is working remarkably well."
Oscar Sjöstedt, the Sweden Democrats' economic spokesperson, said earlier this month that there would be a "a government crisis" if the government did not bring in "pretty significant and substantial" reductions in the biogas obligation at the start of next year.
Mattias Karlsson, the party's former group leader, then wrote in a late night tweet that if the EU migration pact passed by the EU parliament became reality, he found it hard to see "how the common ground of our cooperation could remain", with the party's leader Jimmie Åkesson then backing up Karlsson's statement.
Swedish vocabulary: samarbete – cooperation
Trio in Sweden jailed for drive-by shooting of 12-year-old girl
A Swedish court on Wednesday sentenced three men to life in prison for killing a 12-year-old girl in a drive-by shooting that has become emblematic of Sweden's soaring gang violence.
The shooting outside a fast-food restaurant south of Stockholm in August, 2020 shocked the Nordic nation, with two stray bullets hitting Adriana Ostrowska Naghei, 12, who later died from her injuries.
The Södertorn district court convicted the three men of murder and attempted murder of seven others at the scene, including two whom the court concluded were the actual targets.
"It was a case of indiscriminate firing with automatic weapons in a place where there were several people and one of them died. The punishment can therefore only be life imprisonment," judge Tore Gissin said in a statement.
Swedish vocabulary: urskillningslös automateld -– indiscriminate firing with automatic weapons
Swedish foreign minister says PKK terror group 'a bigger problem than we realised'
Sweden's foreign minister Tobias Billström has called on a tougher crackdown on PKK, the Kurdish separatist terror group, saying that the group's activities in Sweden's territory were "extensive".
"Extensive operations are active to gather in money and to finance terror activities which are directed at another country, Turkey," he told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper in an interview.
He said that the terror group's fingers extended into gang crime in Sweden, and that Sweden was a base for PKK activities in protection rackets, drug selling and "a whole range of things which damage Swedish society".
"We have only things to gain by cooperating with Turkish authorities when it comes to sharing information and surveillance of organised crime," he said. "But we also have a responsibility towards Turkey to get a hold of this problem."
Swedish Vocabulary: beskyddarverksamhet – a protection racket
Highest since 2008: Swedish key interest rate hits 3.5 percent
Sweden's central bank, the Riksbank, hiked the key interest rate by 0.5 percentage points to 3.5 percent in a so-called "double hike", while predicting a further 25 point hike in June or September.
After Wednesday's rate hike, Sweden's key interest rate is now at the highest level since October 2008.
Two members of the Riksbank's board - Anna Breman and Martin Flodén - were against the double hike, instead lobbying for a smaller 0.25 percentage point increase.
The 0.5 percentage point increase was however in line with expectations, motivated by unusually high inflation.
Swedish Vocabulary: en dubbelhöjning – a double hike
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