Sweden Democrat leader apologises for party’s past
Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson told the crowd during his speech at the Almedalen political festival on Tuesday that he “apologises deeply” for his party’s history, after the release of the second part of the party’s ‘white book’, an 800-page document looking into the origins and history of the party.
The document covers the period between the party’s founding in 1988 to its entry into parliament in 2010, including its origins in nationalist movements inhabited by right-wing extremists, fascists and Nazis.
Åkesson told SVT that it included “a lot of bad things” and that it was “not fun to read”.
“It makes me feel uncomfortable that there was actually a time when Jews in Sweden had completely rational reasons to view the Sweden Democrats of the time with concern and fear,” Åkesson said, adding that the white book made it clear that there was “overt antisemitism among individual Sweden Democrats.”
“I deeply regret, and apologise, that my party at the time could be perceived as threatening and frightening for Jews in Sweden,” he added.
Swedish vocabulary: vit bok ‒ literally ‘white book’, similar to a white paper, a document informing readers about some particular issue or subject
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Almost one third of Swedish professions have a labour shortage
Despite an ongoing period of low growth, Swedish employers are crying out for staff in multiple professions. A new study by the Public Employment Service (Arbetsförmedlingen) has shown that almost one in three professions (53 of 163) is suffering from a shortage of labour.
Employers are particularly struggling to find nurses, electricians and IT professionals (more specifically systemvetare) with the right skill set. There is also a lack of teachers, but demand is expected to fall in coming years as fewer children have been born.
On the other hand, an ageing population means that the need for healthcare workers is expected to rise.
There is also what the agency describes as a “paradoxical situation” within some professions, such as cleaners, receptionists and waiters, where there is a need for new staff and a potential supply of labour, but issues matching staff to jobs. This could be due to part-time work, staff not having the right skills, or skilled staff leaving the professions. Many waiters are for example registered as unemployed, the agency said.
Swedish vocabulary: bristyrke ‒ a job or profession with a labour shortage
Swedish universities call for increased collaboration with China
The chancellors of four of Sweden’s largest universities have called for Sweden to increase its academic collaboration with China in a joint opinion piece in Svenska Dagbladet.
China’s investments in research and development in areas like artificial intelligence, quantum technology and renewable energy have, the chancellors argue, led to China catching up to the US when it comes to technological research.
“If collaboration with China does not develop in specific areas, Europe risks its economic development, long-term security and could end up a scientific backwater,” they write.
They added that there are possible risks with collaborating with China, but that there are some “neutral areas” like sustainable technology where these risks could be avoided.
The four chancellors behind the opinion piece are Martin Nilsson Jacobi from Chalmers, Anders Söderholm from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Erik Renström from Lund University and Anders Hagfeldt from Uppsala University.
Swedish vocabulary: samarbete ‒ collaboration
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Sweden buys German air defence systems in multibillion kronor deal
The IRIS-T SLM, made by Germany’s Diehl, is a medium range air defence missile system.
“This air defence system is the first we are acquiring and perhaps one of the most important capabilities Sweden has acquired since our Patriot purchase in the 1990s,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told a press conference.
Speaking alongside Kristersson, Defence Minister Pål Jonsson said that the war in Ukraine had been an “eye opener for the importance of a strong air defence”.
Kristersson said the investment was part of “the rapid rearmament that is already under way.”
Sweden’s government announced in March that it wanted to add some 300 billion kronor to its defence spending over the next decade, and that this would bring defence to 3.5 percent of GDP by 2030, up from the current 2.4 percent.
Swedish vocabulary: luftvärnssystem ‒ air defence system
