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Sweden to issue guarantees worth ‘billions’ to energy groups

Sweden said on Saturday it would provide liquidity guarantees to Nordic and Baltic energy companies worth "billions of dollars" in a bid to prevent a financial crisis sparked by Europe's energy crunch.

Published: 3 September 2022 18:11 CEST

Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson at a press conference on Saturday about a potential financial crisis sparked by Europe's energy crunch.

Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson at a press conference on Saturday about the Nord Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Germany being stopped indefinitely. Photo: Anders Wiklund / TT

Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson warned Sweden was facing the prospect of a “war winter”, and said the exact details of the guarantees remained to be worked out.

The announcement came after Russia said on Friday it was cutting off the Nord Stream gas pipeline to Germany indefinitely due to what it said were leaks in a turbine.

The closure is expected to lead to even higher production prices for electricity companies when the market opens on Monday.

Speaking to reporters, Andersson said the guarantees were aimed at giving energy groups “the breathing room that is needed”.

She said there was “a clear security policy agenda behind Russia’s actions”.

“Russia’s energy war is having serious consequences for Europe and Swedish households and companies, especially in southern Sweden which is dependent on electricity prices in Germany, which in turn is very dependent on gas,” she said.

“This threatens our financial stability. If we don’t act soon it could lead to serious disruptions in the Nordics and Baltics,” she said. “In the worst-case scenario we could fall into a financial crisis.”

Finance Minister Mikael Damberg, speaking at the same press conference, said the Swedish decision would “secure financial stability not only in Sweden but in the entire Nordic region”.

The guarantees were expected to be in place on Monday before the stock market closing and would cover all Nordic and Baltic actors within the next two weeks.

Sweden’s parliament has been called in from its summer break to hold a vote on the government’s proposal on Monday.

READ MORE: Energy crisis pushes nuclear comeback in Europe

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Ukraine's ambassador to Sweden criticises 'deeply offensive' TV brothel joke

In the programme, whose name translates as Immigrants for Swedes, a play on the Swedish for Immigrants courses offered to new arrivals in the country, celebrity panelists representing a range of immigrant groups in Sweden are tasked with giving varying answers to questions from presenter Ahmed Berhan.

A group of ordinary Swedes then have to guess whether the panelists are lying or telling the truth.

INTERVIEW: ‘It’s a way to jokingly show that Sweden is very segregated’

In an episode on March 7th, contestants were asked to answer the question ‘which immigrant group were granted the most residence permits in Sweden in 2022?’

“It’s actually, unsurprisingly, people from Ukraine,” answered journalist and comedian Elaf Ali.

“That’s not true,” fellow contestant Thanos Fotas remarked.

To which Ali responded: “Maybe you don’t think about it that much because they’re light haired so they blend in,” before adding that “it’s maybe most obvious in, like, the brothels.”

Ukrainian Ambassador to Sweden, Andrii Plakhotniuk, reacted on social media site X saying that he was “deeply upset” by Ali’s joke. He demanded that she apologise and that and public broadcaster SVT, who broadcast the programme,”takes the necessary measures to prevent similar situations in the future”.

“I consider such statements deeply offensive and completely unacceptable, given the circumstances of the full-scale Russian military aggression against Ukraine, which forced Ukrainian women to flee abroad to save their lives and the lives of their children,” Plakhotniuk wrote.

Ali addressed the criticism in a post on X.

“In the season premiere of IFS, which was broadcast last week, I made jokes about an imam, Somalians and about the tragedies of war (Ukraine) – women who are forced into prostitution,” she wrote, adding that the Ukrainians were “super angry” and had been “bombarding” her on social media.

“So many harsher things have been said, but the idea that a group of people should be immune from having jokes made about them is crazy. And no one seems to care about using their brain to think a step further. Why are women ending up in this position? Who is buying services from these women?” Ali added in a comment under her post on X.

In a comment to Aftonbladet, the broadcaster’s head of programming, Christina Hill ruled out the possibility of SVT issuing a formal apology.

“IFS is a programme with a clear premise: making jokes about stereotypes surrounding ethnicity and culture, often at the boundary of what’s considered socially acceptable. I think it’s clear that the comment is meant as a joke and believe that our audience understands this,” Hill said.

“It is of course not relevant for SVT to take any measures in response to this, as the content of the programme is covered by Swedish freedom of speech,” she added.

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