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Sweden’s politicians take to the pitch

The Red-Green team is favoured in this year’s annual football match between the opposition and the government.

Published: 11 June 2008 16:23 CEST

Photo: RAWKU5

“I have no illusions about the result,” said Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.

The prestigious battle is to take place on Wednesday night, and the mood is tense after the party leaders’ went after each other in a debate on the floor of the Riksdag earlier in the day.

The prime minister nevertheless has great respect for his opponent when it comes to football knowledge.

“We’ll meet a talented team with many who play football and by that I mean more than once a year,” said Reinfeldt, who in his youth chose to play basketball.

“My ambition for tonight is to manage to hang in there for the greater part of the match. That would be an achievement and I hope I can deliver a few passes to our sharp shooters.”

Reinfeldt is the only minister participating in the match. Education minister Jan Björklund claims he wasn’t invited, social minister Göran Hägglund says he doesn’t have time, while energy minister Maud Olofsson blames her leader.

The opposition’s star is former justice minister and former AIK player Thomas Bodström.

He wasn’t impressed by Reinfeldt’s effort last year and is betting on another victory this time around. As right midfielder, Bodström has Left Party leader Lars Ohly.

“That suits me wonderfully. I can make breaks from the left, which will be really fun,” said Ohly, who previously claimed that when he was little he had the chance to play with the legendary “Nacka” Skoglund, a member of Sweden’s national team in the 1950s which took home two World Cup medals.

The Social Democratic party leader Mona Sahlin, who would very much like to have Reinfeldt’s job as prime minister, won’t be able to challenge him on the football pitch.

Instead, she’ll be showing her support for the Red-Green team from the bleachers.

FACT CHECK: Has the EU really banned Swedes from lighting bonfires?

What’s happened?

On April 6th, TV4 Nyheter published a story claiming that burning twigs and leaves in private gardens has been illegal since the beginning of the year, due to new EU rules.

“A common habit for gardeners during their spring cleaning is now banned. An EU law which came into force at the beginning of the year demands that all food and garden waste are sorted separately,” the article states, quoting Milla Sundström, an administrator from the waste and chemicals unit of the Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket) as saying this “indirectly” bans spring fires.

Sundström added that the ban is enforced by local councils, so rules may differ.

Wait… why is it so important for Swedes to burn twigs in their gardens?

It’s a common way of getting rid of the leaves and branches that have accumulated over the last year, with the ashes often used as fertiliser in the garden. It’s usually only allowed for a couple of weeks a year in spring and again in the autumn, and during Valborg at the end of April, when it’s traditional to light a spring bonfire.

Quite a lot of people in Sweden live in pretty remote areas, so it’s much easier for them to get rid of bulky garden waste by burning it rather than having to drive it off to the nearest recycling centre.

So has burning garden waste been banned by the EU?

Technically, no.

The EU law says that member states should “encourage the recycling, including composting and digestion, of bio-waste”, as well as encourage home composting and promoting the use of materials produced by bio-waste, but it doesn’t say anything about banning fires.

“This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” Center Party MEP Emma Wiesner wrote on X, before blaming the government for interpreting the law incorrectly.

“Banning tidying up in your own garden has clearly NOT been the EU’s intention. The inability of the government and authorities to implement the simplest of directives is embarrassing and adds to the contempt for politicians,” she added.

So who has banned fires on private property?

In a regulation from December 22nd, 2022 signed by Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari, the government writes that exemptions “from the prohibition on the incineration of separately collected waste” may be granted in the case of public events.

This refers to a separate law governing waste, which states that “waste that has been collected separately to be prepared for reuse or recycling should not be incinerated”.

This regulation came into effect on January 1st, 2024.

Wait… what does that even mean?

Admittedly, the regulation isn’t particularly clear. Having said that, the new rules on bonfires appear to stem from Naturvårdsverket interpreting this regulation as an outright ban.

“The new regulations mean that garden waste must be composted on-site, left at a recycling centre, or collected by the council,” it writes in a post on its website dated April 11th. “In practice, this means that it is no longer permitted to burn branches, leaves and other garden waste”.

Naturvårdsverket claims that this is “part of the introduction of the EU’s waste directive, which means that bio-waste should primarily be recycled”.

It does, however, add that local councils are able to grant exceptions, “for example if it’s a long way to the closest recycling centre”.

So whose fault is it?

Energy and business minister Ebba Busch, who is head of the climate and business ministry, seemed to indicate in a post on X that the confusion was due to the badly-worded rules introduced by the government at the beginning of the year, which were designed to coincide with the EU’s waste directive.

“I want to be clear and say that the government has not introduced a new ban against burning garden waste,” she wrote, alongside a picture of her standing in front of a fire in her own garden.

“There are new rules, but not any huge changes compared to how it’s worked in the past. We can see that these can be interpreted in different ways. For that reason, the rules will be clarified,” she added.

Can I burn twigs in my garden then?

Maybe.

Despite politicians sharing posts telling you to “Keep calm and keep lighting fires,” you should check with your municipality before you do so.

Some, like Halmstad, have interpreted the new regulations as meaning that you can still light a fire in your own garden, while others require you to apply for an exemption (which usually includes paying a fee), whether you’re applying for a May bonfire or just want to burn some leaves in your own garden.

Others, like Värmdö municipality, allow you to burn things like twigs and small branches in your garden, while stating that grass and leaves should be composted.

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