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SWEDEN ELECTS

Sweden Elects: Liberals face questions over Sweden Democrat links

The Local's editor Emma Löfgren explains the key events to keep an eye on in Swedish politics this week.

Published: 24 October 2022 07:13 CEST
Sweden Elects: Liberals face questions over Sweden Democrat links
Liberal leader Johan Pehrson and Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson at a debate on broadcaster SR before the election. Photo: Christine Olsson/TT

Hej,

Here’s this week’s Sweden Elects, with the latest political talking points.

It’s starting to seem like the Swedish Liberals may have underestimated the strength of their international liberal colleagues’ reaction to the centre-right party’s decision to co-sign a bunch of governmental policies worked out together with the far-right Sweden Democrats.

There’s now talk of potentially expelling them from Renew Europe. The organisation tweeted that its president would “for the time being” not invite their leadership to its events, and that they welcomed the liberal Alde Party’s “fact-finding mission to Stockholm (…) to assess the relationship of the parties supporting the government”.

For any readers who want a crash course on European politics: the Alde Party is a transnational European political party made up of liberal parties from across Europe. Its members are part of the Renew Europe group in the European parliament.

Liberal party leader Johan Pehrson told Swedish media that he was “trying to explain” to his European colleagues that the policies also include “meaningful liberal reforms”.

When The Local spoke with the legal director of human rights group Civil Rights Defenders, he said that the government’s policies take Sweden in an illiberal direction.

“It’s not aimed at strengthening the protection of our human rights. It’s not meant to strengthen the rule of law. It’s not meant to strengthen democracy either,” he told The Local of the political programme agreed by the three government parties and the Sweden Democrats. Read the full interview, for members of The Local, here.

At The Local, we will continue to keep an extra close eye on how government policies and any new legislative proposals affect international residents living in Sweden – and we’ve had quite a few questions from readers about this. This article explains what we know so far about who will be affected by Sweden’s new immigration policy.

(I just want to say a quick thank you here to you as a member of The Local – your support lets us strengthen our coverage of these issues. If you enjoy this newsletter or The Local in general, please feel free to help us spread the word about membership)

Sweden Democrat in hot water over Anne Frank comments

In other news, Rebecka Fallenkvist, a high-profile Sweden Democrat and a presenter on the far-right party’s Riks web television channel, grabbed global headlines last week for making degrading remarks about the Jewish teenage diarist and Holocaust victim Anne Frank.

The party’s press chief called the comments “insensitive and inappropriate”, and told Swedish media that Fallenkvist would be suspended pending an internal probe.

She was instead forced to leave her role as a Riks presenter and was moved to an administrative role, working for the party’s finance department in parliament, reported Aftonbladet. The party confirmed she would help plan its “conference activities”.

Fallenkvist, if you remember, also caused a scandal on election night by declaring “helg seger” – which means “weekend victory” but sounds like and is often used in place of the Nazi salute “Hell seger” (Sieg Heil) – in an interview with pro-SD newssite Samnytt.

Power shifts in Stockholm

While Sweden as a whole handed over power from the left to the right, in the Stockholm region, the winds are turning in the other direction.

A centre-left coalition of the Social Democrats, Green Party and Centre Party is set to take over the reins of Stockholm’s regional government, with the support of the Left Party.

It’s easy to draw the conclusion that the urban areas of Sweden are turning leftwards and the rural areas rightwards (the left wing won Stockholm City too), but that may be too shallow an analysis in this particular case. Discontent had been brewing for several years.

In short: the Swedish capital region had been run by centre-right coalitions, headed by the Moderates, for 16 years, but the leadership had been facing growing criticism.

A scandal over cost overruns and operational problems at what was supposed to be Stockholm’s flagship hospital, several structural errors laid bare by the Covid crisis, and accusations of avoiding questioning by the media all led to the shift of power.

The new government of Sweden

Last but not least, the most significant political event since my last Sweden Elects newsletter is Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s new government being installed.

Here are the key points about everything you need to know about the new government. On the latest Sweden in Focus podcast, the Local’s team speaks more about the controversial decision to merge the Ministry for the Environment with the Ministry for Business, creating a new ministry headed by Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch, with Liberal Romina Pourmokhtari working underneath her as Climate Minister.

Here’s a quick rundown of Sweden’s new government ministers, who represent three parties in total: the conservative Moderates and Christian Democrats and the we-promise-we’re-still-the-liberal-conscience-of-the-government Liberals. Thanks for reading and speak again next week.

Best wishes,
Emma

Sweden Elects is a weekly column by Editor Emma Löfgren looking at the big talking points and issues after the Swedish election. Members of The Local Sweden can sign up to receive the column as a newsletter in their email inbox each week. Just click on this “newsletters” option or visit the menu bar.

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For members

CLIMATE

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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