Event in front of Turkish embassy will further inflame tensions between two countries
Turkey has condemned a demonstration involving the burning of Qur’ans in Sweden on Saturday, further inflaming tensions between the two countries amid Stockholm’s Nato bid.
The protest in Stockholm, which took place under heavy police protection in front of Turkey’s embassy, gathered about 100 people and a crowd of reporters, Agence France-Presse reported.
Continue reading...Judge says Peyman Kia abused trust placed in him, and also sentences younger brother to 10 years
A court in Stockholm has sentenced a former Swedish intelligence officer to life imprisonment and his younger brother to 10 years after finding both guilty of spying for Russia’s military intelligence service for more than a decade.
Peyman Kia, 42, served in the Swedish security and counter-intelligence service, Sapo, and in armed forces intelligence agencies, including the foreign intelligence agency (Must) and KSI, a top-secret unit dealing with Swedish spies abroad.
Continue reading...Swedish government distances itself from hanging of presidential dummy in Stockholm stunt by Kurdish group
Turkey has summoned the Swedish ambassador after a Kurdish group hung an effigy of the Turkish president in Stockholm, in a stunt that has inflamed tensions between the two countries over Sweden’s bid to join Nato.
Sweden’s foreign minister, Tobias Billström, said his government strongly distanced itself from “threats and hatred against political representatives”. Without naming any specific country, he added: “Portraying a popularly elected president as being executed outside City Hall is abhorrent.”
Continue reading...Hunters allowed to kill 75 wolves from an already endangered population of 460 amid ‘political pressure’ from hunting lobby
The biggest wolf cull in modern times has begun in Sweden as nature organisations warn it could drastically harm the population.
On Monday, the Guardian accompanied 200 hunters as they went to kill wolves in the frost-covered forests between Gävleborg and Dalarna, hunting from midnight until the sun set at 3pm. Groups will be going out across Sweden all month as they attempt to take down the large predators.
Continue reading...Swedish government thought to be reluctant to alienate far-right Sweden Democrats
Hopes of a breakthrough in EU policy on migration have receded as Sweden’s government – supported by the far right for the first time – takes charge of the bloc’s rotating presidency on 1 January.
The EU has been deadlocked over plans to share the management of asylum seekers since the arrival of 1.3 million refugees in 2015 triggered a political crisis. The latest proposals, dating from September 2020, abandoned the idea of mandatory refugee quotas for member states, but they have been making slow progress through the EU council of ministers, the key decision-making chamber.
Continue reading...Handing over of Bülent Keneş is one of Ankara’s key demands in exchange for ratifying Sweden’s membership
Sweden’s supreme court has blocked the extradition of an exiled Turkish journalist, which was a key demand by Ankara to ratify Stockholm’s Nato membership.
The court said on Monday there were “several hindrances” to sending back Bülent Keneş, a former editor-in-chief of the Zaman daily, who Turkey accuses of being involved in a 2016 attempt to topple President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Continue reading...Indigenous people in Sweden are battling UK firm over plans for iron-ore mine on reindeer-herding lands
The charity founded in Greta Thunberg’s name has donated £158,000 to cover the legal costs of Indigenous people in Sweden’s Arctic north as they battle a British mining company over plans for an iron-ore mine on reindeer-herding lands.
Beowulf Mining, which has its headquarters in the City of London, was given approval in March by the Swedish government for excavation on an area used by the Sami community.
Continue reading...Swedish prosecutor says ‘complex’ investigation and analysis continue to see if suspects can be identified
Traces of explosives have been found at the sites of September’s multiple leaks from the Nord Stream gas pipelines, confirming that the breaches were the result of sabotage, Sweden’s prosecution authority has said.
“Analysis that has now been carried out shows traces of explosives on several of the objects that were recovered” from the scene in the Baltic Sea, Mats Ljungqvist, the prosecutor leading the investigation, said on Friday.
Continue reading...Erdoğan demands action against ‘terrorist’ Kurdish militants as Nordic pair maintain united front
The prime ministers of Finland and Sweden have urged Hungary and Turkey to approve their countries’ applications to join Nato, but Ankara insisted it would not lift its objections without further extraditions of suspects it considers terrorists.
The two Nordic nations applied to join the US-led defence alliance in May, jettisoning decades of military non-alignment in a historic policy shift triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Continue reading...Maritime experts believe wreck is sister ship of Vasa, which sank off Stockholm in 1629
Swedish maritime archaeologists have discovered the long-lost sister ship of the 17th-century warship Vasa, which sank on its maiden voyage, the Swedish Museum of Wrecks has said.
Launched in 1629, Applet (Apple) was built by the same shipbuilder as the famed 69-metre Vasa, which was carrying 64 cannon when it went down in a strait off the island of Vaxholm, just outside the capital, Stockholm.
Continue reading...New rightwing government said label could be counter-productive for Sweden’s international agenda
Sweden’s new rightwing government has announced it is ditching the country’s pioneering “feminist foreign policy”, launched by the leftwing administration in 2014, saying the label could be counter-productive.
The foreign minister, Tobias Billström, announced the move just moments after the prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, presented his new government, backed by the far-right Sweden Democrats for the first time.
Continue reading...Far-right party says online post by Rebecka Fallenkvist about Jewish diarist was ‘insensitive’
A Sweden Democrats official has been suspended by the far-right party for making degrading comments about Anne Frank.
In an Instagram posting that has now been deleted, Rebecka Fallenkvist called the Jewish teenage diarist “immoral”, among other things, according to Swedish media.
Continue reading...Prospective prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, says three parties will cooperate with the Sweden Democrats
Three centre-right parties in Sweden have reached agreement on a minority coalition that will depend on parliamentary support from the Sweden Democrats, giving the far-right party direct influence over government policy for the first time.
The leader of the Moderates party, Ulf Kristersson, said on Friday it would form a government with the Liberals and the Christian Democrats after the rightwing bloc won the narrowest of majorities in the country’s 11 September elections.
Continue reading...Svante Pääbo receives 2022 award in physiology or medicine for genome discoveries including Neanderthals
A Swedish geneticist has been awarded the 2022 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine.
Svante Pääbo won the 10m Swedish kronor (£867,000) prize announced on Monday by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.
Continue reading...Leader of centre-right Moderates formally asked to try to form coalition that could include anti-migrant populists
The leader of Sweden’s third largest party – the centre-right Moderates – has been formally asked to try to form a government that could include the far-right, populist Sweden Democrats, either inside a governing coalition or outside to secure a majority.
In Sweden’s election on 11 September, the country’s four centre-right and far-right parties won 176 seats, while the centre-left coalition that includes the ruling Social Democrats got 173 seats. Andreas Norlén, the speaker of the 349-seat Swedish parliament, the Riksdagen, has asked Ulf Kristersson, the leader of the Moderates, to see if he can form a governing coalition.
Continue reading...Loose coalition of far-right Sweden Democrats and centre-right parties wins majority of three in parliament
The leader of Sweden’s incumbent Social Democrats has resigned as prime minister after conceding defeat in the country’s knife-edge election, handing victory to a loose bloc of rightwing parties that includes the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD).
The PM, Magdalena Andersson, called a press conference at which she accepted defeat, while pointing out that her Social Democrats remained Sweden’s largest party with more than 30% of the vote – and that the majority in parliament for the right bloc was very slim.
Continue reading...Bloc including far-right Sweden Democrats on course for one-seat majority with last votes to be counted
Sweden’s future is balanced on a knife-edge as the country awaits a final tally of the votes in Sunday’s general election, in which a loose bloc of rightwing parties led by the far-right Sweden Democrats – now the second largest party – holds the slimmest of majorities.
With 95% of the vote counted, the right bloc was on 49.7%, while four parties on the left, including the incumbent Social Democrats, stood at 49%. The final picture will come on Wednesday after the votes of Swedish citizens living abroad and those of some who voted early are counted.
Continue reading...Far-right Sweden Democrats appear to be close to causing earthquake in Swedish politics with 20% of poll
The far right appears close to causing an earthquake in Swedish politics, the Sweden Democrats becoming the country’s second-largest party while the wider rightwing bloc that it leads edged towards a slim victory over the incumbent centre-left.
Exit polls on Sunday night at first suggested a narrow victory for the Social Democrats and their centre-left allies. But as the votes were counted the tally swung towards the right. With more than 90% of the vote counted, the right bloc of four parties had a share of the vote corresponding to 176 of 349 seats in parliament, with the left bloc trailing on 173.
Continue reading...Rightwing bloc that has embraced anti-immigration Sweden Democrats aims to win power from centre-left
Swedes are voting in an election pitting the incumbent centre-left Social Democrats against a rightwing bloc that has embraced the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats in an attempt to win back power after eight years in opposition.
With steadily growing numbers of shootings unnerving voters, parties have vied to be the toughest on gang crime, while surging inflation and the energy crisis in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have increasingly taken centre stage.
Continue reading...Andersson says Sweden Democrats entering government would change tone of politics
Sweden’s Social Democratic prime minister, Magdalena Andersson, has said the country is at a pivotal moment as it prepares for its most critical election in years, in which rightwing populists with neo-Nazi roots are likely to become the second biggest party.
Andersson, who took over from Stefan Löfven in November to become Sweden’s first female leader, told the Guardian in an interview while campaigning near Stockholm that the repercussions would be considerable if the right-leaning parties win Sunday’s vote.
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