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Almedalen: Sweden’s annual politics extravaganza kicks off on Gotland

Thousands of people from Sweden's political, business and media elite gather each year on the island of Gotland for a week of events and seminars, and the 2019 edition of the event has just begun.

Published: 1 July 2019 07:24 CEST

Almedalen: Sweden's annual politics extravaganza kicks off on Gotland

Visitors arrive at Almedalen for the festival's first day, dedicated to the Green Party. Photo: Henrik Montgomery / TT

Almedalen, the name given to the eight-day event, began on June 30th this year and will continue on Sunday, June 7th. Each of Sweden's major political parties has a day dedicated to them, so the length of the festival is determined by how many parties are represented in the country's parliament at the time.

More than 40,000 people typically attend Almedalen, 95 percent of them coming from outside Gotland.

The 2019 event has around 750 fewer events than the previous year — around 3,550 in total — which could be because 2018 was both Almedalen's 50-year anniversary and took place in an election year.

The decline in events could also show falling interest in the event. Almedalen began began 1968 when Social Democrat Olof Palme, who would go on to become prime minister, gave an impromptu speech while his family was spending their summer holiday on Gotland. This year, prime minister Stefan Löfven will not attend the event, with three other current ministers also skipping Almedalen.

Instead of appearing at Almedalen, Löfven will go on a tour of the country, which he also did in 2017.

READ ALSO: Ten things that make a visit to Gotland unforgettable

Vocabulary

island – ö

parliament – riksdag

event – evenemang

prime minister – statsminister

tour – turné

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

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'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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