#sweden politics

[andiatas]

State Visit from Finland

On 23–24 April 2024, the President of the Republic of Finland, Alexander Stubb, and their wife, Suzanne Innes-Stubb, will pay a state visit to Sweden at the invitation of H.M. The King. The President is accompanied by a delegation of government and business representatives.

The tradition of a newly elected Finnish president making his first state visit to Sweden expresses the special relationship between Sweden and Finland. The state visit confirms the close connection and togetherness.

The purpose of the visit is to continue developing and deepening the very close cooperation within all areas of society, above all foreign, security and defence policy cooperation. The new security situation in our surrounding area makes this relationship even more significant. The visit also aims to work for an even closer collaboration between Swedish and Finnish businesses to promote trade and investments and jointly strengthen global competitiveness. Student and research exchange and cultural issues are other areas that will be touched upon during the visit.

The state visit will be the seventh incoming state visit from Finland since the King's accession to the throne. The last one took place in 2022 when President Niinistö visited Sweden. The King has made five outgoing state visits to Finland, the most recent of which took place in 2015.

The visit takes place over two days in Stockholm and Gothenburg.

Translation and editing for clarity is done by yours truly; the original press release in Swedish can be found here.

[mysharona1987]

[theinconvenientlifestyle]

[troythecatfish]

[useless-catalanfacts]

Sweden saying they'll vote against allowing the use of Catalan, Basque and Galician in the European Union Parliament because "there's lots of minority languages and we can't allow them all" is so funny because CATALAN HAS MORE SPEAKERS THAN SWEDISH

Catalan is the 13th most spoken language in the EU. It has more than 10 million speakers, which means it has more speakers than other languages that are already official EU languages like Maltese (530,000), Estonian (1.2 million), Latvian (1.5 million), Irish (1.6 million), Slovene (2.5 million), Lithuanian (3 million), Slovak (5 million), Finnish (5.8 million), Danish (6 million), Swedish (10 million), and Bulgarian (10 million).

Neither Galician (3 million) nor Basque (750,000) would still be the least spoken languages to be allowed in the EU representative bodies.

But even if any of them did, so what? Why do speakers of smaller languages deserve less rights than those of bigger languages? How are we supposed to feel represented by the EU Parliament when our representatives aren't even allowed to speak our language, but the dominant groups can speak theirs?

It all comes down to the hatred of language/cultural diversity and the belief that it's an inconvenience, that only the languages of independent countries have any kind of value while the rest should be killed off. After all, isn't that what Sweden has been trying to do to the indigenous Sami people for centuries?

[pharawee]

The cutest little list by thestandard.co showing which countries have already proclaimed equal marriage, with Thailand (as of today!) and Liechtenstein as the newest countries . 🌈

[destielmemenews]

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[parisoonic]

i really wish we got the tf2 tv show because i think, about your talk about how pyro ends up being a foil to the other characters, pyro is such a wildcard of a character that if you need someone for an episode to complete a dynamic it's pyro. he's designated driver. he's the mcdonalds employee. he's scout's ma. she's helping miss p dismember bodies. it's coming in through the dog door

your ask got me thinking about how i'd use pyro in a show and IDK if anyone else has seen Solar Opposites but how they split the Pupa's screentime between A + B plots in the first/second season would be spot on the money for me. Pyro could be there, in the A plot, in small ways (like you said, at the back of the bus or en rotue to the episodes mission) but then gets sucked into a 'mundane' B plot for some tonal levity within the episode. Pyro's gotta run that FTSE 500 company! They've gotta seduce the Ballicorn comic writer in order to read the never-published final issue! They've gotta earn an Astrophysics PHD in order to steal their Professor's Pokemon topped pen....that sort of thing. And then occassionaly they can show up with the deus-ex-mechina for the episode with the rest of the team being none the wiser (other than vaguely baffled as their flamethrower could've REALLY come in handy fighting those haunted scarecrows).

[crossdreamers]

Sweden makes it easier for young people to legally change their gender

In Sweden, lawmakers have recently voted to change the country's legal gender recognition law.

The new legislation allows individuals as young as 16 years old to legally change their gender identity with parental consent. Those over 18 do not need approval from a guardian, a doctor and the National Board of Health and Welfare.

Additionally, the new law removes the requirement for medical or psychological evaluation for gender recognition, making the process simpler and more accessible.  A gender dysphoria diagnosis is no longer required.

Supporters of the law argue that it is a step forward in recognizing and respecting the rights of transgender and non-binary individuals.

The law gained support from most of the parties, including the conservatives and the liberals. The Christian Democrats and the right wing populist Sweden Democrats opposed the bill.

AP has more.

Photo: Naomi Baker/Getty Images

[leviathangourmet]

How Did One of the Safest Countries on Earth Develop a Huge Gang Problem?

[andiatas]

The King comments on increased gang violence

The numerous gang shootings in Stockholm are also discussed at the Royal Palace. In a speech to Stockholmers today, the King commented on the increased violence.

In a speech at Slottsbacken today, the King mentioned the many gang shootings that have occurred in Stockholm and the feeling of unsafeness many people feel.

He points out that violence must never be normalized and that we must not get used to it.

- Just as we restore nature that has been damaged, we must slowly and painstakingly restore security in our city, and in our country, says the King.

Despite the serious situation, the King looks to the future with confidence.

- After all, I feel hopeful when I see so much determination and so many good forces working together to fight violence.

This year, in addition to the throne jubilee, it's also celebrated that Sweden has been an independent state for 500 years - ever since Gustav Vasa was elected King on June 6, 1523.

The King commented that it was a violent period even in the 16th century – albeit in a completely different way.

Excerpt translated by me from an article by Jenny Alexandersson for Aftonbladet, published on June 22, 2023. Photo: Magnus Andersson/TT

Note: Why is that last sentence such a Carl Gustaf thing to say? 😂

[mysharona1987]

Huh. says it all really.

[clatterbane]

Oh my. This whole ongoing mess really is crap hilarious.

The ruling is the latest twist in a battle between Tesla and labour groups in Sweden. Union IF Metall put mechanics on strike on Oct. 27, refusing to service Tesla's cars because the company would not accept collective bargaining.

Members of other unions, including dockworkers, electricians and cleaners have since taken action in sympathy.

Tesla has a policy of not signing collective bargaining agreements and says its employees have as good, or better, terms than those demanded by IF Metall. The union says it is vital to the Swedish labour market model that all companies have collective agreements...

Seko, the union that organised the PostNord workers, told Reuters an easy solution for Tesla was to sign the collective bargaining agreement with IF Metall.

So yeah, the agency issuing the licence plates needs to find some way of getting them to Tesla, without any obligation on anyone else to actually deliver them.

It also sounds remarkably like someone at the Transport Agency was being purposely obstructive there too, beyond normal-level dealing with bureaucracies. They also probably did NOT particularly want to piss off the postal workers in question, by trying to circumvent their existing shipping contract while said postal workers were refusing to deliver to Tesla.

A little more background:

So yeah, good luck getting anything done when basically every other industry is refusing to deal with your business, or even deliver its mail. You would think that whoever was actually making certain decisions at Tesla would have learned from the similar Toys 'R' Us debacle in the mid-'90s.

My guess is that they were at least hoping that nearly 30 more years of neoliberal influence might have weakened organized labor enough for them to get away with pulling this shit now. Either that, or 'just' contravening the Being Bloody Stupid Act of 1581. And then freaking Elon did an Elon, and responded to any criticism by doubling down on some terrible choices.

I can only hope that, if this was the line of thinking? That someone was sorely mistaken, and severely underestimated how well the whole Nordic Model has managed to hold up.

[macabrebat]

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Swedens prime minster, Ulf Kristersson was holding a speech about the israel-palestine conflict and stumbled over his words... he was trying to say "israel has all the right to "försvara"protect themselves" however instead he said "israel has all the right to "folkmord"genocide". He cut himself off before saying folkmord=genocide instead of försvar=protect. He knows (like the entire world) whats truly going on and yet still tries to appease the west. The crowd screams back at him wondering if israel has the 'right' to the genocide theyre comitting.

[acti-veg]

are you pro, or anti immigration for refugees? what do you think in regards to the immigration situation with sweden?

Well refugees aren’t emigrating so they can’t be counted in the category of immigration. Refugees have the legal right to claim asylum in any country, regardless of their immigration policies. Our right-wing media conflates the two groups (on purpose) but it’s very important that we don’t treat them as belonging to the same category.

I assume you’re talking about Sweden requiring non-EU labour migrants to have secured a monthly salary amounting to at least 80% of the gross median salary in Sweden to obtain a work permit. It will backfire, as similar policies always have across the EU. Labour migration is good for economies, this is a demonstrable fact that nobody seems to want to acknowledge anymore. Modern capitalism literally depends on underpaid migrant workers.

This is a policy informed by xenophobia rather than economics, and it’s sad to see Sweden going to same way we have in the UK. i would bet that it will be quietly watered down as soon as the relevant sectors (farming, manufacturing, care, medicine, service) feel the full effects. That’s exactly what happened in the UK less than a year after we implemented our own ‘hostile environment’ immigration policies.

In an ideal world (free from capitalism) the unfettered free movement of all peoples would be a human right, but if we’re talking purely national policy here and now then immigration of course needs to happen at a controlled rate to allow communities to adequately support, integrate and provide for their new members. That means a robust social welfare system, well-funded healthcare and education, and a true living wage. Of course, I support refugees as any reasonable person should.

[the-l00ker]

HEAR ME OUT

Imagine harassing someone to the point that they become frustrated enough to make a threatening remark and then you being the one getting in trouble despite the person who harassed you, being the one to provoke you, is not getting in trouble because it's there job?

If the crew member stopped when asked the first time then none of this would be a problem.

The Netherlands who department has been more transparent then the EBU, stating that he'd asked her to stop multiple times, saying that he threaten her once but didn't do anything violent, about how they didn't condone his actions but believed the punishment to be too harsh because he didn't cause the situation AND IN THERE CONTESTANTS POLICIES THEY ARE DECLEARED RIGHT TO PRIVACY. IT'S A HUMAN RIGHT.

"but they came to be recorded and blah blah" NO THEY CAME TO SING AND WIN A COMPETITION. NOT BE HARASSED

Joost reaction was completely out of frustration and frankly I would have done the same, and I know deep down some of you would have to.

"eurovision isn't political motivated" it's also a bit strange that the Netherlands allegedly were the ones to reveal Israel was WINNING and had an overall 37+% of the votes that they'd tried to keep secret? They're blaming the Netherlands for everything "going wrong" even though it's there poor management.

They rushed into a very important decision only taking less than a day to come to a conclusion and it is seemed now that they are realizing they've messed up by how quickly they rushed into that conclusion

Instead of backtracking and apologizing the instead double down over the last couple hours resulting to the Justified backlash there getting