Today in Sweden: A roundup of the latest news on Thursday
Blizzard continues to batter Sweden's north coast, rents set to increase in 2024, traces of cocaine found in four political parties' toilets, and Spotify told by court to scrap night shifts. Here's the latest news.
Snowstorm continues to batter Sweden's north coast
An orange weather warning for snow and wind remains in place in the Sundsvall-Umeå region, with up to 30 centimetres of snow expected to fall between Wednesday afternoon and noon on Thursday.
A snowstorm that battered southern and central Sweden has more or less subsided.
It sparked several crashes on Wednesday as cars went off the road in the slippery conditions. The E22 road, where some 1,000 cars were left stranded for as long as 20 hours in a separate blizzard earlier this month, was closed for several hours to avoid the build-up of traffic.
At Landvetter airport, a KLM plane bound for Amsterdam slid off the runway and got stuck in the snow. No one was injured in the incident.
Swedish vocabulary: snow – snö
Rental costs set to increase in Sweden in 2024
The cost of the rent for a first-hand apartment is set to rise on average five percent for almost 322,000 apartments, almost one quarter of Sweden's first-hand rentals. Negotiations between the Renters' Association and housing companies are still ongoing for the rest of the stock.
It's the biggest increase in more than 30 years, for the second year in a row.
So how much would this cost you? The average three-room apartment, around 70 square metres, may have a first-hand rent of around 8,000 kronor a month. A five-percent increase would mean around 400 kronor more a month for the person with the lease. If you're renting the apartment second-hand, as it's known in Sweden (subletting), the cost is likely going to be passed down on to you, too.
The Renters' Association (Hyresgästföreninen) was quick to point out to the TT news agency that landlords had originally asked for rent increases of around 12 percent, from which they had managed to bring them down to five percent.
Swedish vocabulary: a rent – en hyra
Spotify told by court to scrap night shifts
A Swedish administrative court has rejected streaming giant Spotify's request to let staff work night shifts.
In Sweden, employees are by law entitled to at least 11 consecutive non-work hours every day, and the hours between midnight and 5am must be included in that, so that staff are able to get their rest. Exceptions can be made for vital services such as hospitals or businesses that can't stop running at night, or businesses with a collective bargaining agreement, which in many cases allow for night shifts.
But Spotify has long rejected calls for a collective agreement. It now has three options, Sweden's Work Environment Authority told trade union magazine Kollega: end the night shifts, sign a collective agreement about night shifts, or continue to try to get an exemption.
"As a global audio and technology platform, it's critical for our engineers to be on call to ensure uninterrupted availability for millions of creators and listeners around the world. We will now analyse the decision and then decide whether to appeal and/or move parts of our on-call hours to our other markets," a Spotify spokesperson told TT in an email.
Swedish vocabulary: a night shift – ett nattskift
Cocaine found in four Swedish political parties' toilets
Traces of cocaine were found in four of the eight Swedish parties' offices, in an investigative report by the Aftonbladet newspaper.
Aftonbladet wiped surfaces in the toilets with so-called cocaine napkins, which they also tested in a lab to confirm.
The cocaine traces were found in toilets used by the Liberals, Social Democrats, Sweden Democrats and the Left Party. Although the corridors are closed to people without a key card, they are also used by external visitors to the political parties, including journalists.
"It's a toilet that a lot of people can use, but you shouldn't do drugs, that's the gist of it," Liberal party leader Johan Pehrson told TT.
The parties all said that they would follow up the reports, by carrying out their own tests or speaking with work environment representatives.
Swedish vocabulary: to do drugs – att knarka
Sweden calls on Iran to release Swedish citizens
Sweden's foreign ministry said on Wednesday that it had summoned Iran's charge d'affaires, calling for the release of "arbitrarily detained" citizens in Iran, adding that authorities had learned of more Swedes being arrested.
"Sweden's demands for the immediate release of the Swedish citizens arbitrarily detained in Iran, consular access to detained citizens and respect for international commitments on consular matters were stressed at the meeting," Sweden's Ministry for Foreign Affairs said in a statement, quoted by the AFP news agency.
"The government has heard reports of further arrests of Swedish citizens," it added.
"In late 2023, a man with Swedish and Iranian citizenship was detained for no apparent reason," it continued, without adding further details.
Relations between Sweden and Iran have soured after a Swedish court sentenced a former Iranian prison official, Hamid Noury, to life in prison over mass executions in 1988.
Swedish vocabulary: to release – att släppa (fri)
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Snowstorm continues to batter Sweden's north coast
An orange weather warning for snow and wind remains in place in the Sundsvall-Umeå region, with up to 30 centimetres of snow expected to fall between Wednesday afternoon and noon on Thursday.
A snowstorm that battered southern and central Sweden has more or less subsided.
It sparked several crashes on Wednesday as cars went off the road in the slippery conditions. The E22 road, where some 1,000 cars were left stranded for as long as 20 hours in a separate blizzard earlier this month, was closed for several hours to avoid the build-up of traffic.
At Landvetter airport, a KLM plane bound for Amsterdam slid off the runway and got stuck in the snow. No one was injured in the incident.
Swedish vocabulary: snow – snö
Rental costs set to increase in Sweden in 2024
The cost of the rent for a first-hand apartment is set to rise on average five percent for almost 322,000 apartments, almost one quarter of Sweden's first-hand rentals. Negotiations between the Renters' Association and housing companies are still ongoing for the rest of the stock.
It's the biggest increase in more than 30 years, for the second year in a row.
So how much would this cost you? The average three-room apartment, around 70 square metres, may have a first-hand rent of around 8,000 kronor a month. A five-percent increase would mean around 400 kronor more a month for the person with the lease. If you're renting the apartment second-hand, as it's known in Sweden (subletting), the cost is likely going to be passed down on to you, too.
The Renters' Association (Hyresgästföreninen) was quick to point out to the TT news agency that landlords had originally asked for rent increases of around 12 percent, from which they had managed to bring them down to five percent.
Swedish vocabulary: a rent – en hyra
Spotify told by court to scrap night shifts
A Swedish administrative court has rejected streaming giant Spotify's request to let staff work night shifts.
In Sweden, employees are by law entitled to at least 11 consecutive non-work hours every day, and the hours between midnight and 5am must be included in that, so that staff are able to get their rest. Exceptions can be made for vital services such as hospitals or businesses that can't stop running at night, or businesses with a collective bargaining agreement, which in many cases allow for night shifts.
But Spotify has long rejected calls for a collective agreement. It now has three options, Sweden's Work Environment Authority told trade union magazine Kollega: end the night shifts, sign a collective agreement about night shifts, or continue to try to get an exemption.
"As a global audio and technology platform, it's critical for our engineers to be on call to ensure uninterrupted availability for millions of creators and listeners around the world. We will now analyse the decision and then decide whether to appeal and/or move parts of our on-call hours to our other markets," a Spotify spokesperson told TT in an email.
Swedish vocabulary: a night shift – ett nattskift
Cocaine found in four Swedish political parties' toilets
Traces of cocaine were found in four of the eight Swedish parties' offices, in an investigative report by the Aftonbladet newspaper.
Aftonbladet wiped surfaces in the toilets with so-called cocaine napkins, which they also tested in a lab to confirm.
The cocaine traces were found in toilets used by the Liberals, Social Democrats, Sweden Democrats and the Left Party. Although the corridors are closed to people without a key card, they are also used by external visitors to the political parties, including journalists.
"It's a toilet that a lot of people can use, but you shouldn't do drugs, that's the gist of it," Liberal party leader Johan Pehrson told TT.
The parties all said that they would follow up the reports, by carrying out their own tests or speaking with work environment representatives.
Swedish vocabulary: to do drugs – att knarka
Sweden calls on Iran to release Swedish citizens
Sweden's foreign ministry said on Wednesday that it had summoned Iran's charge d'affaires, calling for the release of "arbitrarily detained" citizens in Iran, adding that authorities had learned of more Swedes being arrested.
"Sweden's demands for the immediate release of the Swedish citizens arbitrarily detained in Iran, consular access to detained citizens and respect for international commitments on consular matters were stressed at the meeting," Sweden's Ministry for Foreign Affairs said in a statement, quoted by the AFP news agency.
"The government has heard reports of further arrests of Swedish citizens," it added.
"In late 2023, a man with Swedish and Iranian citizenship was detained for no apparent reason," it continued, without adding further details.
Relations between Sweden and Iran have soured after a Swedish court sentenced a former Iranian prison official, Hamid Noury, to life in prison over mass executions in 1988.
Swedish vocabulary: to release – att släppa (fri)
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