‘Why not me, after 3,000 days?’ Djalali’s video message to Swedish PM

Ahmadreza Djalali, the Swedish Karolinska Institute researcher who has been imprisoned in Iran since 2016 on charges of espionage, addressed Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson directly in a video message, shown by Swedish public broacaster SVT among others.

“Mr Prime Minister,” he says. “I talk to you from Evin Prison inside a horrible cave where I have spent eight years and two months, almost 3,000 days, of my life.”

Djalali’s wife, Vida Mehrannia, who is now protesting every day outside the Swedish foreign ministry until she gets a meeting with Kristersson or Foreign Minister Tobias Billström, has criticised the government for not including him in a controversial prisoner swap which saw the release of two other Swedes this week. Swedish authorities say Iran refuses to discuss his case as he is a dual national.

“Mr Prime Minister, you decided to leave me behind under huge risk of being executed in Evin. You left me here helpless. Why not me, after 3,000 days?” says Djalali in the video, calling the decision discrimination and challenging Kristersson to meet his family in front of the press.

Billström told SVT that the Swedish government had tried to include Djalali in the prisoner swap but that Iran had refused. 

Swedish vocabulary: helpless – hjälplös

‘I have to be self-critical’: Sweden Democrat leader after election fiasco

Sweden Democrat party leader Jimmie Åkesson spoke about the party’s surprisingly poor performance in his first interview since the EU election. It was the first major election in which the far-right party had a worse result than previous elections, ending up in fourth place.

“Most pundits had expected us to increase, all polls showed that. It was an unexpected event,” he told SVT’s news programme Aktuellt.

He conceded that the Sweden Democrats had failed to get its voters to the polls, but said it was too soon to say why they had failed.

Some theories are that its voters responded negatively to references to “The Great Replacement Theory” – a conspiracy theory used by white power movements – in the run-up to the election, or to its tough talk after a TV4 documentary revealed the party’s “troll factory”.

Another theory is that it’s the effect of no longer being in opposition and being held responsible for decisions.

“Of course I have to be self-critical when we have a bad election. But it’s too soon to say which part of it was bad,” said Åkesson.

He said he looked forward to entering a “new phase, with a focus on issues”.

Swedish vocabulary: issues – sakfrågor

‘Snus’ set to become cheaper, and cigarettes more expensive

The Swedish parliament has approved a proposal to lower the tax on snus – the moist tobacco a lot of Swedes like to stick underneath their upper lip.

Meanwhile, smoking will become more expensive with a nine percent tax hike on cigarettes.

The new taxes will come into force on November 1st this year.

Swedish vocabulary: to smoke – att röka

Sweden raises work permit salary threshold by over a thousand kronor

Statistics Sweden on Tuesday released new median salary figures, effectively pushing up the work permit salary threshold for all new applicants.

On November 1st last year the minimum salary that applicants need to earn in order to be eligible for a Swedish work permit was raised to 80 percent of Sweden’s median salary. At the time the median salary was 34,200 kronor a month, giving a salary threshold of 27,360 kronor.

But in an update on June 18th, the median salary was pushed up to 35,600 kronor. 

This means work permit applicants (including both first-time applications and extensions) applying on this date or later will need to earn a total of 28,480 kronor a month in order to qualify for a work permit.

The Local is answering your questions about the new threshold in this article.

Swedish vocabulary: a threshold – en tröskel