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Swedish PM promises to tackle segregation

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven has announced a new government programme designed to combat segregation in Sweden.

Published: 6 July 2016 07:50 CEST
Swedish PM promises to tackle segregation
Löfven speaking at the annual Almedalen politics meet-up. Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT

In his Tuesday speech at the annual Almedalen politics meet-up on Gotland, the Swedish PM warned that the country may be fractured if segregation is not tackled.

“There must be an end to the shootings, car burnings and drug trade,” he said.

“Religious extremist should not be able to gain power in the public sphere and decide where women can be, and how they dress.”

Löfven presented the ten-point government scheme before his speech. Running until 2025, it will receive 250 million kronor ($29.2 million) of government funding.

Among the points promised were a review of the punishments for attacks against police, as well as handing Sweden’s employment agency Arbetsförmedlingen the mission of increasing employment among foreign-born women.

Tens of millions of kronor per year will go to school initiatives in disadvantaged areas, while 14 million kronor ($1.6 million) will be directed towards supporting sports leaders.

Swedish police have identified 53 vulnerable residential areas, of which 15 are considered particularly vulnerable. The latter are characterized by parallel social structures, violent religious extremism, and a difficulty for police attempting to carry out their duties there.

The Prime Minister rejected suggestions that the programme would mostly consist of surveys and studies, saying that was “not a correct description” of the project.

Löfven also talked about the government investing 60 billion kronor ($7 billion) in “societal building” in the form of a larger programme first outlined last spring. That larger scheme includes sending 10 million kronor ($1.1 million) extra in grants to municipalities, as well as investment in schools, transportation and homes. Those investments are for the entirety of Sweden.

When asked by Swedish news agency TT how the money from the new program will be correctly directed towards the affected areas, Löfven said that there will be an agreement made between delegations and the municipalities in vulnerable areas over what should be done.

Political science professor Jonas Hinnfors said he was surprised to find Löfven’s programme vague and containing little money, while the government simultaneously depicts segregation as one of the great social challenges in Sweden.

“They are exposing themselves to the risk of receiving strong criticism for not doing much about a problem they are talking about in such strong terms,” he told TT.

The political scientist said he thinks the reform is fresh evidence of how difficult it is for the Social Democrats to allocate resources to projects considered “major reforms”.

Sweden’s opposition Alliance coalition criticized the scheme. Centre Party leader Annie Lööf described it as “meaningless”, calling for concrete initiatives and highlighting the Alliance proposal of hiring 2000 more police officers.

Moderate party secretary Tomas Tobé was surprised meanwhile that the possibility of tougher sentences for attacks against the police will first require investigation.

“It isn’t enough to investigate when stones are raining over the Swedish police,” he said.

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

Claims that a new EU law had outlawed lighting fires in private gardens have hit the headlines recently, with outraged Swedes accusing Brussels of banning Sweden's traditional spring fires. But how true are they?

Published: 19 April 2024 10:39 CEST
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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