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Sweden’s king cancels planned trip to China

King Carl XVI Gustaf has cancelled a planned trip to China, with the royal court giving the ongoing political uncertainty in Sweden as the reason.

Published: 26 November 2018 09:06 CET
Sweden's king cancels planned trip to China
King formally opens parliament in September. Photo: Henrik Montgomery / TT

The visit to China and Hong Kong was arranged by the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) and takes place between November 25th and December 1st. But the king did not join the delegation, Dagens Industri was first to report.

“The reason is Sweden's situation in regard to government-building,” said the Royal Court's press chief, Margareta Thorgren, referring to the fact that over two months since elections, Sweden is still being run by a caretaker administration. “With regard to all overseas trips, we have consultation and dialogue with the foreign ministry and in this case the decision is that the king will not go.”

As head of state, the king plays a key role in the formation of government in Sweden, and has had several meetings with the parliamentary speaker over the past week, with more talks planned for this week.

However, Swedish broadcaster SVT has said that the cancellation was partly linked to “sensitive negotiations” relating to the imprisonment of Swedish-Chinese author Gui Minhai.

Gui was one of five Hong Kong-based booksellers – known for publishing gossipy titles about Chinese political leaders – who disappeared in 2015 (while he was on holiday in Thailand) and resurfaced in mainland China. He was released in October 2017, but was arrested again on a train to Beijing in January while travelling with two Swedish diplomats.

Swedish authorities, as well as the EU and several human rights' organizations, have called for Gui's release, but neither the Foreign Ministry nor the Royal Court would confirm to SVT or TT whether this was a factor in the cancellation of the king's trip.

SVT reports that the Foreign Ministry and Royal Court had “wanted to get a clear process for [Gui's] release in the near future underway in order for the king to carry out his visit to China”. In an interview with Svenska Dagbladet this week, the Chinese ambassador in Stockholm Gui Congyou reiterated attacks on the bookseller, saying there was “a political agenda behind the criticism” of China relating to the case.

While the king will be involved with the formation of Sweden's next government, there is no formal requirement for him to remain in the country until a government is formed. With the next prime ministerial vote set for no earlier than December 5th, any cabinet meetings requiring the head of state's presence would not be held until at least a day after that.

Thorgren confirmed that the king had carried out multiple overseas trips during the autumn, but added: “These were of a shorter nature, and the schedule planners at the court have had a constant level of preparedness. The fact the king isn't participating in this trip is due to it being very far away and lasting a whole week.”

READ ALSO: Swedish satire programme says it won't apologize to China over sketch

 

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WORK PERMITS

Business leaders: Work permit threshold ‘has no place in Swedish labour model’

Sweden's main business group has attacked a proposal to exempt some jobs from a new minimum salary for work permits, saying it is "unacceptable" political interference in the labour model and risks seriously affecting national competitiveness.

Published: 25 April 2024 17:37 CEST
Updated: 26 April 2024 06:11 CEST
Business leaders: Work permit threshold 'has no place in Swedish labour model'

The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise said in its response to the government’s consultation, submitted on Thursday afternoon, that it not only opposed the proposal to raise the minimum salary for a work permit to Sweden’s median salary (currently 34,200 kronor a month), but also opposed plans to exempt some professions from the higher threshold. 

“To place barriers in the way of talent recruitment by bringing in a highly political salary threshold in combination with labour market testing is going to worsen the conditions for Swedish enterprise in both the short and the long term, and risks leading to increased fraud and abuse,” the employer’s group said.   

The group, which represents businesses across most of Sweden’s industries, has been critical of the plans to further raise the salary threshold for work permits from the start, with the organisation’s deputy director general, Karin Johansson, telling The Local this week that more than half of those affected by the higher threshold would be skilled graduate recruits Swedish businesses sorely need.   

But the fact that it has not only rejected the higher salary threshold, but also the proposed system of exemptions, will nonetheless come as a blow to Sweden’s government, and particular the Moderate Party led by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, which has long claimed to be the party of business. 

The confederation complained that the model proposed in the conclusions of the government inquiry published in February would give the government and political parties a powerful new role in setting salary conditions, undermining the country’s treasured system of collective bargaining. 

The proposal for the higher salary threshold, was, the confederation argued, “wrong in principle” and did “not belong in the Swedish labour market”. 

“That the state should decide on the minimum salary for certain foreign employees is an unacceptable interference in the Swedish collective bargaining model, where the parties [unions and employers] weigh up various needs and interested in negotiations,” it wrote. 

In addition, the confederation argued that the proposed system where the Sweden Public Employment Service and the Migration Agency draw up a list of exempted jobs, which would then be vetted by the government, signified the return of the old system of labour market testing which was abolished in 2008.

“The government agency-based labour market testing was scrapped because of it ineffectiveness, and because it was unreasonable that government agencies were given influence over company recruitment,” the confederation wrote. 

“The system meant long handling times, arbitrariness, uncertainty for employers and employees, as well as an indirect union veto,” it added. “Nothing suggests it will work better this time.” 

For a start, it said, the Public Employment Service’s list of professions was inexact and outdated, with only 179 professions listed, compared to 430 monitored by Statistics Sweden. This was particularly the case for new skilled roles within industries like battery manufacturing. 

“New professions or smaller professions are not caught up by the classification system, which among other things is going to make it harder to recruit in sectors which are important for the green industrial transition,” the confederation warned. 

Rather than implement the proposals outlined in the inquiry’s conclusions, it concluded, the government should instead begin work on a new national strategy for international recruitment. 

“Sweden instead needs a national strategy aimed at creating better conditions for Swedish businesses to be able to attract, recruit and retain international competence.”

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