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Welcome to Sweden’s power players week

You're going to hear the word Almedalen a lot this week. Whether you love or loathe politics, this is annual gathering of Sweden's power players on the island of Gotland is an event you need to know about.

Published: 27 June 2015 06:16 CEST
Updated: 29 June 2015 07:12 CEST
Welcome to Sweden's power players week
Centre Party leader Annie Lööf, speaking on Sunday. Photo: TT
Let's start with the name. What exactly does Almedalen even mean?
 
Almedalen translates as 'elm valley' in English. It is the name of the park in Visby on the island of Gotland, where Sweden's party leaders hold their most important speeches of the year during Almedalen Week.
 
Okay, so what is Almedalen Week then?
 
Almedalen Week (usually shortened to just Almedalen) crams Sweden's political conference season into just eight days.
 
It's been going for more than 40 years and started after former Swedish Social Democrat Prime Minister Olof Palme spoke from the back of a lorry in Visby back in 1968. Since then it has mushroomed in size with more than 20,000 people attending each summer, from politicians to lobbyists, journalists and campaigners.
 
Why should I care if I'm not Swedish?
 
Almedalen is one of the biggest political gatherings on the planet that most people outside of Sweden have never heard of. But the debates this week will dig into Swedish themes and topics that are already of global interest, from paternity leave to free schools, laws that make buying sex illegal to the nation's defence strategy in the face of rising Russian aggression.
 
How do I get an invite then?
 
You don't need one. Most events are free and the idea is that anyone who wants to discuss a current social issue should be able to participate. In practice, good luck getting to Gotland. Hotels, apartments and even camp sites usually get booked up months in advance, while ferries and flights to the island quickly sell out.
 
So if I'm going to be following Almedalen from my sofa, how do I know when interesting stuff is happening?
 
That's where The Local comes in. We're relocating our office from Stockholm to Visby for the first time and we'll be reporting on the hottest events and speeches throughout the week. Since most – but not all – speeches and events will be held in Swedish, we'll be the only news site offering live coverage in English, focussing on the most innovative proposals and political ideas to emerge from the gathering.
 
You'll find information on our home page, in our special Almedalen 2015 section and by following our updates on Twitter.
 
Each parliamentary party gets one day at their disposal, following a rotating pattern designed to make sure that smaller groups aren't confined to the fringes of the festival. Most parties start their days taking part in early morning radio and television interviews before holding events and seminars, with leaders holding key speeches at 7pm.
 
 

All of Sweden's major political leaders will be present at Almedalen. Photo: TT
 
Here's the timetable for 2015
 
Sunday June 28th – Centerpartiet (Centre Party)
 
Monday June 29th – Socialdemokraterna (Social Democrats)
 
Tuesday June 30th – Kristdemokraterna (Christian Democrats)
 
Wednesday July 1st – Sverigedemokraterna (Sweden Democrats)
 
Thursday July 2nd – Miljöpartiet (Green Party)
 
Friday July 3rd – Moderaterna (Moderate Party)
 
Saturday July 4th – Vänsterpartiet (Left Party)
 
Sunday July 5th – Folkpartiet (Liberal Party)
 
What else is going on this year?
 
There are around 3000 events on the official programme this year, from speeches by global international guests including writer Naomi Klein, to Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis (who's currently playing a major role in Greece crisis talks) and leading business figures such as Tina Fordham, Chief Global Political Analyst at Citibank. Elsewhere you can party with feminist campaign groups, mingle with Swedish start-ups or even let your hair down at lunchtime disco sessions designed to encourage visitors to take a break and mingle.
 
We can't wait.
 

SWEDEN DEMOCRATS

REVEALED: Sweden Democrats’ secret social media ‘troll factory’

A Swedish reporter went undercover for a whole year to confirm the existence of a far-right troll factory, run by the Sweden Democrats to spread content of benefit to the party and degrade its political opponents.

Published: 7 May 2024 15:34 CEST
REVEALED: Sweden Democrats' secret social media 'troll factory'

In the Kalla Fakta programme for broadcaster TV4, a reporter spent five months working undercover for the Sweden Democrats, first on the YouTube channel Riks, previously owned by the party, and later for the party’s communications team.

“I was undercover for a whole year, five months of which I was working [for the party],” Kalla Fakta’s reporter Daniel Andersson told The Local. “Two of them I was on Riks, the YouTube channel, and three of them I was in the communications department.”

During this period, Andersson wore a hidden camera to show how the YouTube channel, which the party claims is independent, is in fact closely linked with the party.

Andersson said he found out about the troll factory just before moving over to the communications department.

“They are in the same office building, Riks rents their office from the Sweden Democrats, so during lunch the departments often met, ate lunch together and talked a lot about it. That’s where I overheard secretive talks about anonymous accounts on social media, and they didn’t want to say what their name was or why they had them.”

The Sweden Democrats are also Riks’ largest source of financing, with daily meetings taking place between the channel’s owner, Jacob Hagnell, and Sweden Democrat head of communications Joakim Wallerstein.

Kalla Fakta’s report revealed that the party’s communications wing has been tasked with managing a large number of anonymous social media accounts, referred to within the party as a “troll factory”, an organised group of fake accounts with the aim of influencing public opinion and debate by spreading pro-Sweden Democrat content.

“We’re going to talk a lot more about how they operate in the next episode, in a week,” Andersson said. “But what we saw very early was that it was very, very systematic, it’s organised. And the purpose is to create a huge load of posts on different social media to create an illusion of the fact that the Sweden Democrats and their image of the world and of Sweden is larger than it is.”

“The boss is Joakim Wallerstein, the communications chief of the Sweden Democrats. He’s also the mastermind behind this – we also identified Riks as a part of it, where he is creating a conservative ecosystem, troll factory, to manipulate people’s views of the world,” he added.

Back in 2022, the Sweden Democrats were accused of running a “troll factory” by left-wing newspaper Dagens ETC. At the time, the party rejected the accusations, calling ETC’s article “unserious and obvious activism” in an email to SVT, while admitting that a group called Battlefield, responsible for moderating the party’s comments boxes on social media, did exist at one point.

In the new Kalla Fakta programme and in another interview with Dagens ETC, Wallerstein admits that these anonymous accounts exist, although he rejects the term “troll factory”.

“I don’t think I’ve been running so called troll sites, for the simple reason that I haven’t been spreading false information,” he told Kalla Fakta.

Andersson believes this is nothing more than damage control from the party.

“He doesn’t want to acknowledge that it is a troll factory. He doesn’t see a problem with the fact that they are anonymous, or the fact that the connection to the party is hidden,” Andersson said.

By Paul O’Mahony and Becky Waterton

Hear TV4’s reporter Daniel Andersson explain more about the investigation in the next episode of The Local’s podcast, Sweden in Focus. Out on Friday, May 10th. 

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