Swedish police to receive new rubber bullet guns

Swedish police are set to receive a new kind of rubber bullet guns, as part of a package of measures introduced after riots broke out in several parts of the Nordic country following Quran burnings during Easter 2022, reports Swedish news agency TT.

The idea is that the new bullets will be used by police to maintain public order and safety in large crowds, and they are only supposed to be used on individuals who pose a specific threat, and not be randomly fired into crowds. 

Similar bullets are already in use in other European countries and the US. 

The plan is to roll them out for Swedish police next winter.

Swedish vocabulary: a rubber bullet – en gummikula

Sweden’s upcoming budget bill to invest 16.8 billion in new proposals

Sweden’s right-wing coalition will put forward new proposals to the tune of 16.8 billion kronor in its spring amendment budget, Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson told public radio broadcaster Sveriges Radio’s news programme, Ekot, on Wednesday morning.

“Our spring amendment budget is larger to be able to invest in welfare, jobs, as well as security and safety,” she said.

The spring amendment budget is usually mainly used to tweak or add bits and pieces to Sweden’s main annual budget, which was presented last autumn. This year’s spring amendment budget will be submitted to parliament on April 15th.

Svantesson declined to release any further specific details for now. The government has previously said that among other things it will give an additional 6 billion kronor in funding to Sweden’s regional governments, which is intended to prevent them laying off doctors, nurses and other health workers. It has also said it will spend 1.35 billion kronor on helping airlines handle a new baggage control system.  

It has also earmarked 25 million kronor to help eleven government agencies do more to help attract skilled foreign labour to Sweden. 

Swedish vocabulary: a spring amendment budget – en vårändringsbudget

How a bridge collapse in 1980 raised safety standards in Sweden

A Baltimore steel bridge collapse after a massive cargo ship collision in the early hours of Tuesday, with several people missing and presumed dead, made many Swedes remember a similar accident in Sweden more than four decades ago.

In 1980, a Norwegian ship hit one of the pillars supporting the bridge between Stenungsund and the island of Tjörn in western Sweden, causing the bridge to collapse. In a strange coincidence, the accident happened at the same time of night as in Baltimore: around 1.30am. 

Despite the efforts of a quick-thinking truck driver and the crew onboard the ship to warn drivers not to cross the bridge, several vehicles went into the water after noticing too late that the bridge was no longer there. Eight people, all men, died. 

The Tjörn bridge disaster raised the security standard at Swedish bridges, through installing collision protection but also placing the bridge supports outside the shipping lane, which has made it far less likely that a similar accident will happen in Sweden again.

Swedish vocabulary: a bridge – en bro

New forecast: Sweden’s economic downturn will bottom out this year

As The Local reported on Tuesday, Sweden’s economic downturn will bottom out in 2024 and the key interest rate will be lowered four times this year, according to a new forecast by Sweden’s National Institute of Economic Research (NIER).

Sweden’s GDP will grow by 0.8 percent this year before rising to 2.5 percent next year, according to the new forecast. However, unemployment will continue to rise, hitting 8.3 percent this year, before dropping in 2025.

The institute’s core measure of inflation, CPIF, which strips out the effect of interest rate rises, fell to 2.5 percent in February. The institute expects that it will continue to drop throughout 2024, reaching 1.2 percent by the end of the year, far below the Riksbank’s 2 percent target.

Swedish vocabulary: four times – fyra gånger