There are too many people who are in Sweden

Lena Mellin
Sweden should be able to do better

Too many people complain

Lena Mellin

This is a commenting text. Analysis and positions are the writer's.

Published 06.47

Sweden, a country of cheaters?

Unfortunately, it seems so.

A lot goes wrong.

The latest departure from the political track is about the duty to reduce. So the mixing of bio and synthetic fuels in petrol and diesel to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases from car traffic.

Both the governing parties and SD promised in the election two years ago to sharply lower the price of fuel "at the pump", that is, at the supermarket.

As usual with election promises, they underestimated the complexity of the issue and thus how much time would be required for implementation. A small step was taken in 2023, a big one this year. But already next year, new bids await. It was wrong.

First, the reduction duty was lowered from 7.8 to six percent for gasoline. And from 30.5 to six percent for diesel.

This meant that emissions of carbon dioxide increased sharply. Sweden would not reach its own environmental targets and not the EU's either.

After eight months of criticism, the government changed its mind. Next year, the reduction obligation will be increased to ten percent for both petrol and diesel in order for Sweden to meet the EU targets.

Compared to 2023, more greenhouse gases will still be emitted. But the emissions will be a little lower than this year. Of course, the government doesn't say that. They claim, after a complicated number crunching, that emissions will decrease until 2030. But the experts don't think so.

The percentage does not indicate how large the mixing of biofuels is, but how much climate impact from a certain manufacturer's petrol or diesel must be limited to, i.e. their total production on an annual basis. Local variations can therefore occur, for example due to the temperature.

The increase in the reduction obligation has a major disadvantage - for the government and SD, that is. Not for the climate. It raises the price at the pump. So that the motorists, their most unloved constituency, will not be sad, the fuel tax is therefore being lowered gradually. Cost: Almost nine billion in 2025 and 2026. For comparison, it can be mentioned that the regions received an extra six billion this year to alleviate the healthcare crisis.

This is an example of cheating. Incompetence. I am prepared to bet several thousand Swedish kroner that the fad could have been avoided if the government and SD had listened to people who know the issue. But drunk on the election win, they didn't do it and now they are forced to bite the sour apple.

Another example concerns the content of a hitherto secret report from the police that investigated the country's roughly 800 HVB homes. 18 of them were run by organized or family-based criminal networks and had gang members on the payroll.

In HVB homes, among other things, young people who have committed crimes are cared for. HVB, means "home for care or accommodation" and is an institution within social services. Many, but not all, homes are privately run. In order to be able to start and run such a home, permission is required from IVO, the Inspectorate for Care and Care

Photo: Hanna Brunlöf Windell/TT

This is so gross that it can hardly be called slander. But society obviously does not want to help criminals to recruit and educate young people on the run. So the absurdity may, after all, be categorized as a lack of knowledge. Patronage.

The third example taken from the last few weeks is a report from MSB, the Swedish Agency for Community Protection and Preparedness. They have investigated three incidents in the past year and asked whether it could have been handled better.

The events are the snow chaos on the E22 in Skåne last winter, the oil spill from the ferry Marco Polo off the Blekinge coast in October last year and the extensive landslide on the E6 at Stenungssund in September 2023.

The summary judgment from MSB is too little and too late.

- We must dare to make decisions, dare to act, even if the situation and decisions are not perfect, said MSB's director general.

But what she is talking about is quick decisions in various types of social crises. Not clannishness that goes on for a long time.

The examples in the article are taken from the very recent past. But the reasoning also applies to the substandard railway maintenance, the passeland a couple of years ago that no civilized country should have accepted, the then hour-long queues at the security checks at Arlanda, the permanently poor organization of care and so on.

We are a country of cheaters. Not all. But too many.

THREE  EXPOSURES

Chancellor Olaf Scholz received yet another bottom rating from the voters in the federal elections in Thuringia and Saxony. Hans Eget SPD received less than ten percent of the vote, far-right AFD over 30 percent. In Thuringia, the figure was 33 percent, the highest for a far-right party since the war.

Princess Märta Louise of Norway has a distinct nose for business. Her remarriage was sold to both a streaming service and an international magazine despite her no longer being a working member of the royal family. She took fantastic nature and royal guests like Vickan and Daniel to help.

According to the Tidö agreement, the government and SD must reintroduce civil servant responsibility so that civil servants can be punished if they make mistakes. But how to deal with the government's own obstinacy? No political responsibility will be introduced, of course. Believe me. No matter how stupid and hard to follow their decisions.