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POLITICS

Swedish PM shakes up cabinet in key reshuffle

UPDATED: Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven has announced a cabinet reshuffle widely interpreted as an attempt to turn a page on weeks of scandals for the centre-left coalition government.

Published: 25 May 2016 10:52 CEST
Updated: 25 May 2016 12:54 CEST
Swedish PM shakes up cabinet in key reshuffle
Ann Linde, Peter Eriksson, Isabella Lövin, Stefan Löfven, Karolina Skog and Ibrahim Baylan. Photo: Jonas Ekströmer/TT

“I'm appointing three new ministers and giving other ministers new portfolios,” Löfven told reporters at a press conference in Stockholm on Wednesday morning.

He was joined at the podium by new ministers Ann Linde, Karolina Skog, Peter Eriksson, as well as newly-appointed Green Party co-leader Isabella Lövin and current Energy Minister Ibrahim Baylan.

“It was a minor change. People had been speculating over whether it would be a big one or a small one. This was a small one. Not quite the most modest he could have made, but almost,” political scientist Stig-Björn Ljunggren told The Local. 

“Other than Ann Linde there were really no names here that were a big surprise. Löfven isn't the kind of guy to make big strategic changes in the middle of the year,” he added. 

The Prime Minister echoed that sentiment in his own analysis of the reshuffle. “Some call it a big one, some call it a small one, I call it a 'lagom' one,” he told public broadcaster SVT after the press conference.

The reshuffle follows a spate of scandals for Löfven's coalition, including the resignation of two government heavyweights. Environment Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Åsa Romson stepped down this month after she was ousted as co-leader of the Green Party.

Her resignation came after her Green Party colleague, Housing Minister Mehmet Kaplan, quit after it emerged in mid-April that he had kept company with Turkish extremists.

Lövin, who took over the reins from Romson, will become new Deputy Minister with special responsibility for climate issues, said Löfven. She will also remain as minister of international development cooperation.

Eriksson, who headed the Green Party 2002-2011, will be Sweden's next housing minister.

“Peter Eriksson is one of the Green Party's most seasoned and experienced politicians, who I know as a cooperative person with his feet on the ground. (…) He is also a northerner,” joked Löfven, who grew up in northern Sweden, demonstrating his regional allegiances.

And the appointment of the veteran politician will be seen as a plus for the government, according to political scientist Ljunggren.

“Eriksson will get attention. Not because he's a surprise, but because he's a charismatic figure. He's both an orator and a doer: he walks the walk and talks the talk. That's a plus for the government.”

Skog, a former Malmö councillor in southern Sweden, is the new environment minister.

Baylan will stay on as energy minister, but will be responsible for co-ordinating cross-departmental policy issues.

Linde, who has previously worked in an adminstrative role within Sweden's interior ministry, will become EU and trade minister.

Löfven also announced that the much-debated cabinet position 'minister of the future', held by Social Democrat Kristina Persson, will be scrapped.

He also said that the creation of an EU and trade minister would mean that Minister for Enterprise and Innovation Mikael Damberg, who has previously been responsible for dealing with export, would be able to focus on his main portfolio.

The sitting labour minister, Ylva Johansson, will keep her portfolio but will also be appointed 'establishment minister', co-ordinating the work of helping immigrants start a life and find work within Swedish society.

Reporting by Emma Löfgren and Lee Roden

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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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