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POLITICS

Almedalsveckan costs authorities millions

And so it's time again - buckle your seatbelt, sit up straight and get ready for another veritable orgy of politics, economy and debate.

Published: 3 July 2011 09:34 CEST

Swedish politicians, journalists and lobbyists have gathered on the Baltic island of Gotland to partake in Almedalsveckan, the annual “political” week in Sweden.

Doors are thrown wide on Sunday, and the political fest is expected to be bigger than ever before.

“Everyone will be there, from party politicians to big organisations. So it’s unavoidable for us to go there too,” Urban Bäckström, CEO of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Svenskt Näringsliv), told news agency TT.

Once again, Almedalsveckan has blown all previous size records out of the water.

On Thursday, 1449 events were listed on the schedule, close to 650 journalists were registered to attend, and as far as topics go, climate and environment were top of the pops, ahead of healthcare and enterprise.

And this orgy certainly doesn’t come cheap. This year’s week in Almedalen is set to cost Swedish authorities roughly 5.2 million kronor ($829,000), reported the newspaper Dagens Nyheter on Sunday.

“The question is if participating in Almedalen is just a way to get a pleasant paid vacation, or if it really fits within the agency’s mission,” political scientist Peter Esaiasson said to the paper.

Out of the 38 authorities present, the Swedish Armed Forces (Försvarsmakten) is investing the most with their 900,000 kronor. 740,000 kronor makes the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) runner-up.

This year Almedalsveckan runs from July 3rd to July 10th. An extra day has been added to the traditional seven, to make room for the Riksdag’s newest party, the Sweden Democrats.

The seed to the Almedalen week was planted in 1968, when prime minister and Social Democratic leader Olof Palme stood on the back of a truck and spoke, under the elm trees in Visby’s park.

Few could have expected this to grow to the size it has, but whether it is a positive development or a negative one is a matter of debate.

Critics opine that Almedalsveckan is a waste of money, resulting in very few serious political suggestions.

But Stig-Björn Ljunggren, political scientist and social democratic debater, says that critics have misinterpreted the week’s purpose.

“It’s extremely relevant. It’s a industry meeting for those in the art of bringing out a message.”

No one could be happier about this than Visby’s many restaurateurs, who will be selling canapés, sandwiches, salads and dinners in enormous quantities.

Not to mention the amount of emptied glasses with varying contents.

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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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