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MUSEUM

Free entry planned for Swedish museums

Sweden's state-owned museums could soon become free to visit under new plans set to be put forward in the government's autumn budget.

Published: 15 September 2015 15:51 CEST
Free entry planned for Swedish museums
A Louise Bourgois exhibition at Moderna Museet, Stockholm in February 2015. Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad/TT
Both tourists and locals are set to benefit from the proposals which would see a return to free entry at some of Sweden's most popular cultural attractions including the modern art Moderna museet venues in Stockholm and Malmö, the Naturhistorika riksmuseet (Swedish Museum of Natural History) and the Världskulturmuseet i Göteborg (Museum of World Culture in Gothenburg).
 
Prime Minister Stefan Löfven's Social Democrat party introduced a similar scheme when it last was in power ten years ago, but fees were reintroduced by the centre-right Alliance government in 2006.
 
Culture Minister Alice Bah Kuhnke told Swedish broadcaster SVT on Tuesday that she hoped the move would encourage people from a more diverse range of backgrounds to attend exhibitions.
 
“We need to open up and show our shared treasures to reach groups other than those who usually go to museums,” she said.
 
 

A tourist at the Swedish Museum of Natural History. Photo: Pontus Lindahl/TT
 
The government previously suggested it would introduce the initiative last year, but was unable to do so after its last autumn budget was blocked by the nationalist Sweden Democrats, resulting in a political crisis.
 
But Sweden's mainstream parties went on to strike the December Agreement deal, which should ensure that the coalition's financial plan for the coming 12 months gets through parliament without any hassle.
 
 
Bah Kuhnke has indicated that museums will be given 80 million kronor of state funding to help them deal with their drop in public income, telling SVT that this amount could be “adjusted” if it turns out to be too little, as some critics have argued.
 
Entry to Swedish museums is currently relatively pricey by European standards.
 
For an adult's ticket to the Moderna Museet in Stockholm the fee is 120 kronor ($14.50). By contrast it costs $9 to visit Berlin's Museum of Modern Art, Photography and Architecture and around $10 to visit Barcelona's contemporary art museum. It is free to visit London's largest contemporary art space, The Tate Modern. However in Paris, the Pompidou centre is priced at $14.
 
 
The full list of museums set to be free from 2016

Armémuseum (Army museum)

Etnografiska museet (Museum of Ethnography)

Flygvapenmuseum (Swedish Air Force Museum)

Historiska museet (History Museum)

Kungl. myntkabinettet (Royal Coin Cabinet)

Livrustkammaren (Royal Armoury)

Marinmuseum (Naval Museum)

Medelhavsmuseet (Mediterranean Museum)

Moderna museet (Modern Museum)

Nationalmuseum (National Museum)

Naturhistoriska riksmuseet (Swedish Museum of Natural History)

Sjöhistoriska museet (Maritime Museum)

Skoklosters slott (Skokloster Castle)

Statens centrum för arkitektur och design (Architecture and Design Museum)

Världskulturmuseet (Museum of World Culture)

Östasiatiska museet (Museum of East Asia)

TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

Published: 26 March 2024 09:55 CET
German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of €420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of €2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some €200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of €2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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