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POLITICS

Swedish bank jitters as Greece crisis swells

People travelling from Sweden to Greece are being warned to withdraw cash before setting off, while the Swedish Prime Minister has criticized the Greek parliament’s snap referendum on a possible Grexit.

Published: 29 June 2015 13:32 CEST
Updated: 29 June 2015 20:06 CEST
Swedish bank jitters as Greece crisis swells
A woman outside a closed bank in Greece. Photo: AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis

Swedish banks are warning holidaymakers heading to Greece to take out money before they travel, following news that all Greek banks are set to be closed for the rest of the week, with cash machine withdrawals limited to €60 a day (equivalent to 550 kronor).

The move should not – in theory – affect foreigners seeking to take money out of international accounts, but Scandinavian banks including SEB and Nordea have advised their customers to plan ahead and exchange their Swedish kronor for euros in advance.

Currency exchange firm Forex told the TT news agency on Monday that it had already seen a sharp rise in the number of Swedes getting euro ahead of of their journeys at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport. Cash machine firm ATB, which allows users to withdraw euros at some of its terminals in Sweden said it also had seen an increase in people opting for the single currency.

“Thanks to extensive news coverage it seems most people know that it's smart to bring a hefty sum of cash,” said Tom Friberg, head of communications at Forex.

He noted that many Swedes may not be used to carrying money around due to the Scandinavian nation’s increasingly cashless society.

“We are spoiled in the Nordic region to be able to use our cards whenever we shop at home. Most people are beginning to learn that this isn’t the case everywhere,” he added.

Read more about the Greece crisis on our sister site The Local Germany

The advice from Swedish banks comes a day after the Swedish foreign ministry warned people flying to Greece that “some restaurants and filling stations haven't accepted card payments for some time and are taking just cash”.

This is because businesses may not want to accept credit cards as they could have trouble accessing their own bank accounts, even if card transactions are authorized.

Meanwhile Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Löfven has criticized the Greek parliament’s decision to hold a snap referendum on whether or not the southern European country should remain part of the Eurozone.

“What happened the other day when Greece suddenly said that they wanted a referendum at the eleventh hour, and also believe that the people ought to vote 'no' — that kind of action does not impress me,” he told Swedish Radio.

The Prime Minister was speaking at Sweden's Almedalen Week on Gotland. The political festival was supposed to have been attended by European Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis ('Commissioner for the euro and social cohesion'), who had to cancel at last minute, presumably to deal with the Greece crisis.

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POLITICS

‘Very little debate’ on consequences of Sweden’s crime and migration clampdown

Sweden’s political leaders are putting the population’s well-being at risk by moving the country in a more authoritarian direction, according to a recent report.

Published: 29 April 2024 08:56 CEST
'Very little debate' on consequences of Sweden's crime and migration clampdown

The Liberties Rule of Law report shows Sweden backsliding across more areas than any other of the 19 European Union member states monitored, fuelling concerns that the country risks breaching its international human rights obligations, the report says.

“We’ve seen this regression in other countries for a number of years, such as Poland and Hungary, but now we see it also in countries like Sweden,” says John Stauffer, legal director of the human rights organisation Civil Rights Defenders, which co-authored the Swedish section of the report.

The report, compiled by independent civil liberties groups, examines six common challenges facing European Union member states.

Sweden is shown to be regressing in five of these areas: the justice system, media environment, checks and balances, enabling framework for civil society and systemic human rights issues.

The only area where Sweden has not regressed since 2022 is in its anti-corruption framework, where there has been no movement in either a positive or negative direction.

Source: Liberties Rule of Law report

As politicians scramble to combat an escalation in gang crime, laws are being rushed through with too little consideration for basic rights, according to Civil Rights Defenders.

Stauffer cites Sweden’s new stop-and-search zones as a case in point. From April 25th, police in Sweden can temporarily declare any area a “security zone” if there is deemed to be a risk of shootings or explosive attacks stemming from gang conflicts.

Once an area has received this designation, police will be able to search people and cars in the area without any concrete suspicion.

“This is definitely a piece of legislation where we see that it’s problematic from a human rights perspective,” says Stauffer, adding that it “will result in ethnic profiling and discrimination”.

Civil Rights Defenders sought to prevent the new law and will try to challenge it in the courts once it comes into force, Stauffer tells The Local in an interview for the Sweden in Focus Extra podcast. 

He also notes that victims of racial discrimination at the hands of the Swedish authorities had very little chance of getting a fair hearing as actions by the police or judiciary are “not even covered by the Discrimination Act”.

READ ALSO: ‘Civil rights groups in Sweden can fight this government’s repressive proposals’

Stauffer also expresses concerns that an ongoing migration clampdown risks splitting Sweden into a sort of A and B team, where “the government limits access to rights based on your legal basis for being in the country”.

The report says the government’s migration policies take a “divisive ‘us vs them’ approach, which threatens to increase rather than reduce existing social inequalities and exclude certain groups from becoming part of society”.

Proposals such as the introduction of a requirement for civil servants to report undocumented migrants to the authorities would increase societal mistrust and ultimately weaken the rule of law in Sweden, the report says.

The lack of opposition to the kind of surveillance measures that might previously have sparked an outcry is a major concern, says Stauffer.

Politicians’ consistent depiction of Sweden as a country in crisis “affects the public and creates support for these harsh measures”, says Stauffer. “And there is very little talk and debate about the negative consequences.”

Hear John Stauffer from Civil Rights Defender discuss the Liberties Rule of Law report in the The Local’s Sweden in Focus Extra podcast for Membership+ subscribers.

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