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Two Swedish party leaders test positive for Covid-19

Centre Party Leader Annie Lööf and Green Party Leader Per Bolund, who both attended a cross-party meeting as well as a party leader debate in parliament on Wednesday, have tested positive for Covid-19.

Published: 13 January 2022 11:55 CET

Two Swedish party leaders test positive for Covid-19

Green Party Leader Per Bolund (pictured) and Centre Party Leader Annie Lööf have tested positive for Covid-19. Photo: Anders Wiklund/TT

Green Party Leader Per Bolund announced via Twitter that he tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday morning.

“This morning I took a rapid test for Covid-19 which was positive, and I will therefore be quarantining myself in accordance with Public Health Agency recommendations,” he said.

Bolund’s press secretary Michael Norberg Tot told newswire TT: “He was symptom-free yesterday, and is feeling well today as well, but took a rapid test which showed he was infected. He has booked a PCR test to confirm infection.”

On Wednesday, Bolund took part in a meeting with other party leaders with Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson – who has tested negative – alongside Centre Party Leader Annie Lööf, who has also tested positive.

“Everyone at the meeting was symptom-free, and kept a distance of over two metres,” the Green Party told newswire TT. Green Party spokesperson Märta Stenevi also took part in the meeting, and has tested negative. Other party officials who were involved in Wednesday’s meeting have tested negative and are in isolation.

Lööf announced on Twitter on Wednesday that she had tested positive for Covid-19 that evening, saying: “I feel completely symptom-free, but tested positive this evening via a rapid test.”

She further explained that she chose to test herself after someone who she had met at the end of last week began to show symptoms and tested positive.

“I am following the recommendations in place, isolating myself and my family, and will take a PCR test as soon as there are available times. As I said, I’m doing fine and have no symptoms, but I trust the rapid test and am limiting my contacts to my family.”

Lööf and Bolund were both in parliament on Wednesday for the first party leader debate of the year.

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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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