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Public confidence in Swedish authorities plummets after officials’ holidays and Christmas shopping trips

Several ministers and public officials have been seen carrying out shopping trips and international travel against public health advice, prompting a sharp drop in trust levels according to one new poll.

Published: 5 January 2021 16:42 CET
Public confidence in Swedish authorities plummets after officials' holidays and Christmas shopping trips
Civil Contingencies Agency chief Dan Eliasson described his Christmas trip to visit his daughter in the Canary Islands "necessary". Photo: Pontus Lundahl/TT

In a poll published by Aftonbladet newspaper on Tuesday, 42 percent of respondents said they had “very little” trust in Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, up 10 percentage points on December.

Only 31 percent had either a “very high” or “fairly high” level of trust, down seven percentage points.

Stockholm made world headlines for its decision to combat the coronavirus with mostly non-coercive measures rather than enforcing the lockdowns seen across Europe.

Authorities have repeatedly urged people to “take responsibility”, but after several reports of officials not heeding their own advice, sections of the public have been left fuming.

Over the holidays, Löfven was twice photographed visiting a watch store in central Stockholm. Up until December 13th, everyone in the capital was urged to “refrain from being in indoor environments such as shops, shopping centres, museums, libraries, swimming pools and gyms”.
 

Justice minister Morgan Johansson was also spotted out shopping during the sales between Christmas and the New Year and finance minister Magdalena Andersson was photographed renting skies at a Swedish resort just before Christmas. While not breaking the law, they appeared to be ignoring guidelines to avoid crowds and not to travel.

But the most ire-inspiring case was that of Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) chief Dan Eliasson who travelled to the Canaries to spend Christmas with his daughter, a resident of the islands off north Africa.

Expressen daily said Eliasson flew out a little over a week after the government had recommended people not to travel overseas unless “necessary”.

Eliasson defended the visit telling the paper, “I have refrained from a great deal of trips during this pandemic but this one I thought was necessary”.

That failed to quell the outrage on social media.

“I think it's incredibly provoking and shows a lack of judgement” from Eliasson, Swedish resident Susan Rose told broadcaster SVT. “He travels to see his daughter while we others are urged to stay.”

The government says it has no plans to dismiss him, but home affairs minister Mikael Damberg has called the agency director to a meeting this week.

The Aftonbladet survey also found 62 percent of respondents had “very little” confidence in Eliasson. Only six percent had “very high” or “fairly high” confidence in him.

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WORK PERMITS

Sweden’s Migration Agency rejects role in work permit salary threshold exemption plan

Sweden's Migration Agency has rejected a call for it to be responsible for drawing up a list of in-demand skills and professions exempted from the coming median-salary requirement for a work permit.

Published: 25 June 2024 12:02 CEST
Sweden's Migration Agency rejects role in work permit salary threshold exemption plan

In the conclusions to a government inquiry into setting the median salary threshold, judge Ann-Jeanette Eriksson proposed that the Migration Agency be made responsible for drawing up annual national and regional lists of professions which should be exempted from the threshold.

The list of proposed exemptions could then, she recommended, either be passed to the government for a final decision, or else apply immediately. 

In its response to consultation, the Migration Agency said that it did not believe that it was the right agency to draw up the list. 

“The Migration Agency considers that the task of preparing these proposals should be given to the Swedish Public Employment Service which is the expert agency on labour market issues,” the agency said. 

“As the expert agency, the Swedish Public Employment Service has much broader competence when it comes to judging the demand for labour.”

The employment service could then consult the Migration Agency and other relevant agencies before passing the list to the government, it recommended. 

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The Swedish Public Employment Service did not echo the Migration Agency’s call in its own response. 

It did, however, recommend an alternative system proposed by Eriksson, under which the Migration Agency, rather than the government, would have the final say on which jobs should be exempted. 

“The alternative proposal would mean a simpler process and shorter handling time”, the service said. 

The Migration Agency, however, said it did not support this alternative proposal, without giving any reasons for this.

It did call for a consideration over “whether it might be necessary to consult with other authorities before the proposals are made to the government”.

The agency also called for more specific language on what “considerations around migration law” it should apply when deciding on which professions to exempt. 

In some of its comments on the detail or proposals, the Migration Agency highlighted that the law should specify that work permit applicants need to be offered a salary that meets or exceeds Sweden’s median salary “at the time of application”, and also called for more specifics on how to define a “monthly salary”.

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Eriksson also recommended that Migration Agency be tasked with deciding which industries should be entirely excluded from the work permit system because they have historically had problems with the exploitation of labour migrants and abuse of the work permit system.  

“The possibility of excluding certain groups of jobs is an important tool in the work against exploitation in the workplace,” the agency said of this proposal.

But it said that to carry out this task properly, it would need more information on what criteria should be applied when making such exclusions as well as increased powers to cooperate and share information with other agencies involved in combatting exploitation and abuse in the workplace. 

“For this work to be even more effective, more tools are needed that enable more thorough controls. This is both about developing regulations that provide the Migration Agency with wider powers to carry out checks that facilitate cooperation and information exchange between relevant authorities and organisations,” it said. 

When it comes to the impact of the proposals on its own internal workings, the agency said it agreed broadly with the Eriksson’s judgement that they would not increase the workload at the agency.

The extra work required to carry out its new tasks would, it said, be largely offset by the lower work load following from the proposed abolition of the spårbyte, or “track change” system which allows rejected asylum seekers to stay in the country and apply for work permits. 

It did warn, however, that the changes could lead to even longer processing times for work permit applications. 

“The Migration Agency would like to highlight that the proposed changes to the law, and in particular the salary threshold and the regional and national exemptions from this threshold might affect handling times for work permit cases,” it wrote. 

“The regulatory framework around labour migration is already complex today and involves several decision points. Judging whether an application concerns a job for which there is a national or regional shortage will require a new decision point which will require education and preparation.” 

To reduce the extra demand on resources, the agency called on the government to make the regulation “as precise as possible”, leaving as little room as possible for different interpretations, which would then allow the agency to speed up processing and even digitalise some decisions. 

If the plans to raise the work permit salary threshold from 80 percent of the median salary to 100 percent go through, the idea is that they would come into effect in June next year (although work permit holders renewing their permits would get a one-year grace period).

But the proposal has received a slew of criticism from Swedish business organisations, which argue that it would make it harder to fill essential roles and attract international talent.

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