Centre leader Annie Lööf open to minister role in Social Democrat government
The Centre Party would consider minister roles in a Social Democrat-led government, leader Annie Lööf said on Monday.
In an interview with newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN), Lööf also described Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson as the best prime ministerial candidate.
“I believe Magdalena Andersson has the leadership needed,” she said.
According to Lööf, Andersson has “noticeably better openness for cooperation,” than her rival, Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson, although Lööf also underlined the fact that her support is conditional on “policy anchored in the centre”.
When DN asked if this also meant the Centre would be open to governmental positions, Lööf said that the party “would like to be in government with the Social Democrats.”
“That’s presuming policy leans towards the centre.”
Lööf further repeated her previous line that the Centre Party are not interested in working together with the Left Party on a possible budget.
“The Centre Party is a right-wing liberal central party. We will not collaborate on the Left Party on a budget.”
Lööf did not rule out working together with her previous allies on the other side of the political divide, either.
“We are open to continued collaboration over bloc boundaries,” she said.
“But that’s conditional on the future prime minister being receptive to where the political majority are located.”
Swedish vocabulary: to be part of a government – to take part in a government
Sweden’s Social Democrats propose automatic preschool for three-year-olds
Sweden’s Social Democrats want to force municipalities to sign three year olds up for preschool if they or their parents have recently arrived in Sweden, in a move aimed at combatting segregation.
“We need a joint offensive to break the segregation which is tearing apart our country,” integration and migration minister Anders Ygeman said in a press conference announce a package of measures on Monday.
His party, the Social Democrats, want to make it obligatory for municipalities to sign up all children over the age of three for preschool, if they or their parents have recently arrived in Sweden.
“We want more children with bad Swedish skills to start preschool, giving them a better chance of succeeding when they start school,” Ygeman said.
The measure would not be obligatory for parents, who would still be able to turn down a preschool place if offered one.
“We think that lots of parents will take this opportunity and we want it to be combined with outreach measures from the municipalities,” he said.
In addition to this, the Social Democrats want to force municipalities to contact residents who are eligible for SFI (Swedish for immigrants) classes in their area and encourage them to participate in classes.
Swedish vocabulary: break segregation – break segregation
Trial begins for Swedish man in Donetsk
Five men captured in eastern Ukraine went on trial on Monday in a court administered by Kremlin-backed separatists in the city of Donetsk, Russian media reported.
The five — one Swedish, three British and one Croatian — all pleaded not guilty to charges of being mercenaries, according to Russian media reports.
They could face the death penalty under the laws of the self-proclaimed, unrecognised Donetsk People’s Republic.
The next court hearing in their case is scheduled for October, Russian media reported.
Three of the men were captured in the Ukrainian port of Mariupol and face possible execution for attempting to “seize power by force” and “taking part in armed conflict as mercenaries”, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
The other two face charges of being a mercenary and recruiting mercenaries for Ukraine, the news agency
said.
On June 9, the supreme court of the self-proclaimed republic already sentenced two Brits and a Moroccan, all of whom were captured by pro-Russian forces in Ukraine’s industrial east, to death for being mercenaries. All three have appealed their verdicts.
There has been a moratorium on the death penalty in Russia since 1997, but it does not apply in the two separatist regions in Ukraine.
Swedish vocabulary: the trial – the trial
Sweden Democrat leader: ‘We don’t want unions to control work permits’
The leader of the populist Sweden Democrats party has told The Local that he is opposed to Social Democrat plans to bring back ‘labour market testing’ for work permits, preferring to instead raise the salary threshold.
In an interview after holding his summer speech in his home town of Sölvesborg, Jimmie Åkesson told The Local that while his party believed Sweden’s system of work permits should be made stricter, he was now opposed to bringing back the old system of labor market examination, or labour market testing, scrapped by the Moderate-led Alliance government in 2008, where labour unions worked together with government and employers to identify jobs and sectors where there is a labour shortage.
“We don’t want the unions to have the power to decide who gets permits to come to Sweden,” Åkesson said. “But we want society, in some way, [to] have to see if it’s needed or not, and exactly how we’re going to do that I cannot say at this time.”
He said he believed “a better solution” than a return of union involvement would be something similar to proposals made by the Christian Democrat and Moderate parties, who want to increase the minimum salary that those seeking work permits are being offered.
Åkesson’s views on work permits seem to contradict what is on the Sweden Democrats’ website, where it still states that the party wants “to reinstate government labour market testing, and a demand for qualifications, salary, and need”.
Swedish vocabulary: work permit – work permit