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INSIDE SWEDEN

Inside Sweden: Everything you need to know to plan your Christmas holiday

The Local's editor Emma Löfgren writes about the biggest stories of the week (and Christmas) in our Inside Sweden newsletter.

Published: 18 November 2023 09:27 CET
Inside Sweden: Everything you need to know to plan your Christmas holiday
The Christmas market at Gothenburg theme park Liseberg is one of many Christmas markets in Sweden. Photo: Göran Assner/imagebank.sweden.se

Hej,

Will you be spending Christmas in Sweden? Regardless of whether you celebrate or not, it’s is inescapable, as the biggest holiday in Sweden.

I for one can’t wait until the festive period begins to brighten up these dark and dreary winter days. If there’s one thing that always puts me in a better mood this time of the year, it’s not Santa, lussekatter or julmust – it’s seeing the Advent lights in my neighbours’ windows. Like a quiet “hej” in the night.

If you’re an introvert who’s drawn to predictability and making Christmas last as long as possible, you may want to spend it in Sweden too. Here are The Local’s six criteria to tell if Sweden is the best place for you to celebrate Christmas in.

It’s of course also the time of julbord, the lavish meal which Swedes eat with their family on Christmas Eve but also in the run-up to Christmas with their friends, colleagues, and maybe once more with their family for practice.

Here’s a list with some of the best julbord offered at restaurants in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. Feel free to add your own favourites in the comments.

The deadlines for posting mail in Sweden for Christmas are coming up, especially if you’re sending parcels abroad. Write down these dates. 

I’ve shared this one before, but Christmas markets are the best place to find traditional Swedish gifts for family back home, so don’t miss these events.

We got a question from a reader about whether or not your boss is allowed to make you work over Christmas, and the answer is yes-ish, but it depends and you may have some room for negotiating extra pay or days off in return.

The public holidays fall on awkward dates this year, but next year you can get 12 days off at Christmas by only using up three days of your total holiday allowance. Check out our top Swedish holiday planning tips here.

In other news

Is it harder to break into the Swedish housing market today than it was ten years ago? The answer is a resounding YES, according to a new report.

The European Commission has proposed a shared EU talent pool as part of a package of new measures to make it easier for skilled workers to come to the EU to work.

Swedish banking giant Swedbank raised concern this week over the challenge a new work permit salary threshold for non-EU citizens poses to the Swedish model.

The Swedish state should issue a public apology to the country’s Tornedalian minority, urges a truth commission set up to investigate historic wrongdoings.

Things could start looking brighter for Sweden on the economic front in the latter half of next year, new economic forecasts predict.

Next week, the Swedish central bank is set to make its next decision on whether to leave the interest rate unchanged or hike it once more. Here’s what we know so far.

Thanks for reading,

Emma Löfgren

Editor, The Local Sweden 

Inside Sweden is our weekly newsletter for members that gives you news, analysis and, sometimes, takes you behind the scenes at The Local. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to your inbox, by going to your newsletter preferences.

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For members

INSIDE SWEDEN

Inside Sweden: Why troll factory won’t spark a government crisis

The Local's editor Emma Löfgren rounds up the biggest stories of the week in our Inside Sweden newsletter.

Published: 18 May 2024 09:22 CEST
Inside Sweden: Why troll factory won't spark a government crisis

Hej,

News that the Sweden Democrats are operating a far-right troll factory – which among other things the party uses to smear political opponents as well as its supposed allies – has caused probably the biggest rift yet between them and the three other parties that make up Sweden’s ruling coalition.

The leaders of the Moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberals all strongly criticised the Sweden Democrats’ blatant violation of the so-called “respect clause” in their Tidö collaboration agreement – the clause that states that the four parties should speak respectfully of each other in the media.

But after crisis talks held on Thursday, the conflict appears to be dying down.

The Sweden Democrats hit out strongly at the TV4 Kalla Fakta documentary where the troll factory was revealed, calling it a smear campaign and disinformation, but simultaneously went as far as to confirm that they do run anonymous social media accounts for which they refused to apologise.

They did say sorry to the Tidö parties for including them in the smear campaigns, and promised to remove some of the posts that had offended the other three parties, plus reassign a couple of members of staff to other duties until they’ve been given training on the Tidö “respect clause”.

But that doesn’t remove the fact that they vowed to continue the anonymous social media accounts whose existence they had prior to the documentary consistently denied, or the fact that some of the social media posts shared not only vague anti-immigration content, but white power propaganda.

The Liberals took the row the furthest, with Liberal leader Johan Pehrson describing people in his party as skitförbannade – pissed off as hell. He said ahead of the crisis meeting that they would demand that the Sweden Democrats cease all anonymous posting, which the latter rejected.

The party had two choices: walk out of the government collaboration and possibly spark a snap election, or walk back its strong words ahead of the meeting and wait for it to blow over.

They chose a kind of middle way, and called for an inquiry to be launched into banning political parties from operating anonymous social media accounts. The Social Democrats immediately accused the Liberals of trying to “bury the issue in an inquiry” – a classic Swedish political method of indecisive conflict avoidance which the Social Democrats themselves are well familiar with.

The Christian Democrats and Moderates both said that the Sweden Democrats had accepted their criticism and welcomed the party’s reshuffling of staff within its communications department, adding that it still had to prove its commitment to the Tidö agreement going forward.

So why isn’t this causing a bigger government crisis?

We asked Evelyn Jones, a politics reporter for the Dagens Nyheter daily, to come on the Sweden in Focus podcast to explain it to us:

“The Sweden Democrats are the biggest party in this coalition, even though they’re not part of the government. So the government really needs them. It’s hard for them to just stop cooperating with the Sweden Democrats,” she said.

“The cooperation between the government parties and the Sweden Democrats has been going pretty smoothly since the last election – more smoothly than a lot of people thought. This is probably the biggest crisis so far, but how big it is, is hard to say.”

You can listen to the full interview with her and the rest of the Sweden in Focus podcast here. 

In other news

If you are a descendant of a Sweden-born person and would like to find out more about them, there are ways to do that. I wrote this week about how to research your Swedish ancestry.

That guide was prompted by my interview with the chair of a community history group in a small parish in north-central Sweden, which has tried to get to the bottom of rumours that US mega star Taylor Swift’s ancestors hail from their village. I had so much fun writing this article.

The EU elections will be held on June 9th, but advance voting begins next week in Sweden. And poll cards are already being sent out, so if you’re eligible to vote you should receive yours soon.

Sweden’s consumer price index fell to 3.9 percent in April, below 4.0 percent for the first time in two years, reinforcing predictions that the central bank will keep lowering interest rates.

Sweden’s four-party government bloc has broken with the other parties in a parliamentary committee on public service broadcasting, adding what the opposition complains are “radically changed” proposals. How shocking are they?

Many people move to Sweden because of their partner’s career. Perhaps you’re one of these so-called “trailing spouses”. I’ve been asking readers in this situation how they’re settling in, and will have an article for you next week. There’s still time to answer our survey to share your experience.

Thanks for reading.

Have a good weekend,

Emma

Inside Sweden is our weekly newsletter for members which gives you news, analysis and, sometimes, takes you behind the scenes at The Local. It’s published each Saturday and with Membership+ you can also receive it directly to your inbox.

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