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POLITICS

Alcohol monopoly Systembolaget is Sweden’s most trusted institution: public confidence survey

People in Sweden show no sign of falling out of love with state-run alcohol monopoly Systembolaget, according to a study of the population's trust in different institutions, companies and political parties.

Alcohol monopoly Systembolaget is Sweden's most trusted institution: public confidence survey
Red wines for sale at Systembolaget. File photo: Leif R Jansson / SCANPIX/TT

On the other hand, public trust in the government has fallen after an election that was followed by four months of deadlock and a cross-bloc compromise, the annual trust survey from Medieakademin showed.

Almost four in five of the people interviewed (78 percent) said they had 'quite' or 'very' high trust in Systembolaget, the only place it's possible to buy drinks with more than 3.5 percent alcohol content outside licensed bars and restaurants. This was an increase from last year's edition of the survey, when Systembolaget was still the most-trusted institution but the figure was only 71 percent.

IN DEPTH: 'The most drunken country in Europe': Read this and you might like Systembolaget a whole lot better

In second place was the police force, in which 71 percent of people said they had 'quite' or 'high' trust, and in third place was the higher education system, with 70 percent. Fourth in the ranking was the Ikea brand, at 69 percent.

According to the survey, public confidence in most Swedish institutions had risen compared to earlier years.

But when it came to the government, trust had fallen, with only 30 percent of those surveyed saying they had trust in the government. This was a drop of five percentage points from the previous year.

And there was significant variation in the level of trust for the different political parties. The proportion of people saying they trusted the centre-right Christian Democrats saw the biggest change, growing from 13 percent last year to 30 percent this year; the greatest year-on-year rise reported in the survey since 2004.

But the two largest parties, the centre-left Social Democrats and the centre-right Moderates, were still the most trusted with figures of 32 and 31 percent respectively.

The media forum has carried out its annual Trust Barometer survey each year since 1997 to find out how people in Sweden view government agencies, companies and organizations. This year, around 1,200 people were interviewed for the survey.

Vocabulary

trust (noun) – förtroende

trust (verb) – lita på

alcohol – alkohol

societal debate – samhällsdebatt

annual – årlig

We're aiming to help our readers improve their Swedish by translating vocabulary from some of our news stories. Did you find this article useful? Do you have any suggestions? Let us know.

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WORK PERMITS

Business leaders: Work permit threshold ‘has no place in Swedish labour model’

Sweden's main business group has attacked a proposal to exempt some jobs from a new minimum salary for work permits, saying it is "unacceptable" political interference in the labour model and risks seriously affecting national competitiveness.

Business leaders: Work permit threshold 'has no place in Swedish labour model'

The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise said in its response to the government’s consultation, submitted on Thursday afternoon, that it not only opposed the proposal to raise the minimum salary for a work permit to Sweden’s median salary (currently 34,200 kronor a month), but also opposed plans to exempt some professions from the higher threshold. 

“To place barriers in the way of talent recruitment by bringing in a highly political salary threshold in combination with labour market testing is going to worsen the conditions for Swedish enterprise in both the short and the long term, and risks leading to increased fraud and abuse,” the employer’s group said.   

The group, which represents businesses across most of Sweden’s industries, has been critical of the plans to further raise the salary threshold for work permits from the start, with the organisation’s deputy director general, Karin Johansson, telling The Local this week that more than half of those affected by the higher threshold would be skilled graduate recruits Swedish businesses sorely need.   

But the fact that it has not only rejected the higher salary threshold, but also the proposed system of exemptions, will nonetheless come as a blow to Sweden’s government, and particular the Moderate Party led by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, which has long claimed to be the party of business. 

The confederation complained that the model proposed in the conclusions of the government inquiry published in February would give the government and political parties a powerful new role in setting salary conditions, undermining the country’s treasured system of collective bargaining. 

The proposal for the higher salary threshold, was, the confederation argued, “wrong in principle” and did “not belong in the Swedish labour market”. 

“That the state should decide on the minimum salary for certain foreign employees is an unacceptable interference in the Swedish collective bargaining model, where the parties [unions and employers] weigh up various needs and interested in negotiations,” it wrote. 

In addition, the confederation argued that the proposed system where the Sweden Public Employment Service and the Migration Agency draw up a list of exempted jobs, which would then be vetted by the government, signified the return of the old system of labour market testing which was abolished in 2008.

“The government agency-based labour market testing was scrapped because of it ineffectiveness, and because it was unreasonable that government agencies were given influence over company recruitment,” the confederation wrote. 

“The system meant long handling times, arbitrariness, uncertainty for employers and employees, as well as an indirect union veto,” it added. “Nothing suggests it will work better this time.” 

For a start, it said, the Public Employment Service’s list of professions was inexact and outdated, with only 179 professions listed, compared to 430 monitored by Statistics Sweden. This was particularly the case for new skilled roles within industries like battery manufacturing. 

“New professions or smaller professions are not caught up by the classification system, which among other things is going to make it harder to recruit in sectors which are important for the green industrial transition,” the confederation warned. 

Rather than implement the proposals outlined in the inquiry’s conclusions, it concluded, the government should instead begin work on a new national strategy for international recruitment. 

“Sweden instead needs a national strategy aimed at creating better conditions for Swedish businesses to be able to attract, recruit and retain international competence.”

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