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POLITICS

Swedish ex-politicians get millions in payouts

The government changeover last autumn has cost the Swedish taxpayer a whopping 147 million kronor ($17 million) in severance payments for politicians and officials, it was revealed on Monday.

Published: 3 August 2015 17:04 CEST
Swedish ex-politicians get millions in payouts
Prime Minister Stefan Löfven pictured with his parliamentary colleagues in December 2014. Photo: Maja Suslin/TT

The elections last autumn, which saw Fredrik Reinfeldt's centre-right Alliance replaced by the Stefan Löfven’s Social Democrat-Green coalition, meant that several hundred members of parliament and officials lost their jobs.

All were entitled to some form of guaranteed income or severance pay, with the total bill so far reaching a whopping 147 million kronor, including social security fees.

The bulk of the payments are for those who served in government offices, including former ministers and political officials who have received payments totalling 115 million, according to Swedish news agency TT. The severance payments include a salary of 121,000 kronor per month up to a year.

Last autumn a total of 101 MPs left their seats, some voluntarily, while others were voted out. Seventy-one of them still retain their guaranteed income, costing the Swedish tax payer 32 million kronor.

Former parliamentary under-secretaries are also entitled to income support for up to two years, with 27 of the total 34 retaining all or part of their contribution since the election.

One of the number is former Centre Party secretary Anders Flanking who has received the full contribution since he left his job last autumn, equalling his salary of 94,000 kronor per month.

“At first, it’s a period when you're deciding what to do,” the politician told TT. “It should be something suitable, it’s not so strange. And there are jobs that cannot be taken immediately after the election as you are sitting on sensitive data. Since I do not live in Stockholm, it makes it more difficult.”

Another parliamentary under-secretary, Oscar Wåglund Söderström, is able to top up the salary from his new job that he started in April by 20,000 kronor to equal his former salary at Folkpartiet (the Liberal People’s Party).

Meanwhile, political experts in government offices are entitled to their salary of between 40,000 and 60,000 kronor per month for up to one year.

SEE ALSO: Do you understand how Sweden is being run?

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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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