Minister says ‘all available resources’ sent to storm-hit area
Sweden’s infrastructure minister, Andreas Carlson, has told a press conference that “all available resources” have been deployed to the Norrland coast, after 100 millimetres of rain fell in a very short time, washing away roads and derailing two trains.
Härnösand, Kramfors, Sollefteå and Örnsköldsvik are the worst-affected cities
“Resources are being brought in from different parts of Sweden, and we have a crisis management system activated. We also have all the financial resources required to handle the work now, and minimize similar events in the future,” Carlson said.
Freight traffic and passenger train traffic has been completely stopped between Sundsvall and Umeå. Carlson appealed to the public to keep an eye on railway tracks that are not in use, warning that there was “a high risk of copper theft” when the railways were not operating.
Swedish vocabulary: kopparstölder – copper thefts
Sweden’s government to cut taxes on work and pensions
Sweden’s government has unveiled plans to cut taxes on work, pensions and electricity in the final portion of its package of pre-election giveaways it claims will save a typical family 1,800 kronor a month.
“All of this will now go into the finances of Swedish households and strengthen both mums, dads, pensioners and many others who have been having a tough time,” said Sweden’s finance minister, Elisabeth Svantesson at a press conference on Monday. “What we are doing now is a massive injection which will strengthen Swedish households.”
The government plans to strengthen the so-called jobbskatteavdrag, a type of earned income tax credit, to raise the basic allowance on pension income, lower electricity tax nationwide by 9.875 öre per kilowatt-hour, and cut the fees for childcare and after-school activities.
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The government is also bringing in a system of electricity price protection for households from November 2025 and throughout 2026, triggered when the monthly average spot price exceeds SEK 1.50/kWh in an electricity zone.
Svantesson said the budget struck a balance between “responsibility and relief” for working families.
In the press conference, she said that a family where the mother is a nurse and the father is a policeman would have 1,800 kronor a month more to spend as a result of the package.
The increased earned income tax credit, the government estimates, will save such a family 802 kronor, the cheaper preschool 375 kronor, lower electricity tax 85 kronor, and the already announced reduced VAT on food, 545 kronor
Swedish vocabulary: i snitt – on average
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Sweden’s health minister to step down and leave parliament
Acko Ankarberg Johansson is stepping down from her post as Minister of Health and also leaving the Riksdag – despite the fact that she ran for another term of office a week ago.
She dismisses speculation about the unexpected defection as “incorrect” in a comment to the Altinget political website. Ankarberg Johansson is leaving the government as early as Tuesday, according to a press release from the Christian Democrats.
She is also leaving her seat in the Riksdag and will not stand for re-election next year. This is despite the fact that she announced as late as September 1 that she was running for another term of office.
“I am running for the Riksdag for another term. Healthcare and elderly care are among my priority issues. You should be able to trust healthcare, whoever you are and wherever you live,” she wrote at the time.
Now Acko Ankarberg Johansson is writing instead that with one year left until the election, it is time for someone else to take over. “I will return to what I will do next in due course. Now it is time for loved ones,” she writes and continues: “It has been a privilege to work for and with the Christian Democratic movement.”
Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch wrote on Instagram that Ankarberg Johansson for her “personally and as party leader” had been a “key person in crucial stages in Swedish politics and for our party.” Ebba Busch further writes that there will now be a “changing of the guard” and continues: “We will return to this shortly.”
Swedish vocabulary: en ynnest – a privilege
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Sweden’s Sami fear for future amid rare earth mining plans
Sweden’s indigenous Sami fear they will lose their livelihood and culture if plans go ahead to mine a large rare earths deposit located on their traditional reindeer grazing grounds in the far north.
Rare earth elements are essential for the green transition, including electric vehicle battery production, and the large discovery made in Sweden in early 2023, as well as an even bigger one in Norway in 2024, has boosted Europe’s hopes of cutting its dependence on China.
The Asian country is home to 92 percent of the world’s refined rare earth production and 60 percent of rare earth mining.
Almost a kilometre underground in the Arctic town of Kiruna, Sweden’s state-owned mining company LKAB is blasting an exploration tunnel from its iron ore mine to the neighbouring Per Geijer deposit, to assess its potential.
Its machines are advancing by five metres a day.
“We don’t have any rare earths exploration or mining in Europe, so this has great potential,” LKAB vice president Niklas Johansson told AFP on a recent visit.
