Masked armed man enter LKAB’s iron mine in Kiruna 

A masked man carrying what appeared to be a rifle or pistol broke into a mine site run by state-owned mining company LKAB on Thursday morning, breaking into a drilling machine where staff were working on the new Per Geijer formation. 

The man was not stopped or caught and no one on site was injured, the company said in a press statement. Work at the site has been suspended while inspections take place. 

The break-in, which took place between 2am and 3am, came only a few days after four drilling machines were vandalised in the area, with water pipes cut, tyres slashed, and fuel tanks emptied out onto the ground. 

Swedish vocabulary: att skära sönder – to cut or slash in two (or into bits)

Social Democrats call for municipalities to get money for wind turbines 

Sweden’s Social Democrat opposition has called for municipalities to be given 250,000 kronor per year for each wind turbine built on their territory, to incentivise them to give more projects the go ahead. This would mean that a wind park with 20 turbines could pump 150 million kronor into local budgets over the course of 30 years. 

“This could be used for general purposes for the areas affected by the establishment of wind farms,” Fredrik Olovsson, the party’s business spokesperson, told TT. 

Olovsson said that the government parties’ negative attitude to wind power had slowed down development of the industry. 

“The government came into Rosenbad with a destructive way of looking at wind power and we can all now see the results,” he said. 

Swedish vocabulary: allmänna ändamål – general purposes

Swedish government promises tax cuts for workers and pensioners next year

Sweden’s government has announced plans to cut income tax, as well as tax on pensions and ISK accounts, a type of investment savings account.

The new proposals will be part of the government’s coming budget, which it hopes will help improve the finances of Swedish households after years of inflation.

“This will make life easier for Swedish households,” Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson told a press conference, while adding that the tax cuts will also help kickstart the economy. “A lot of this will go towards consumer spending.” 

The government measures include higher tax cuts for workers and lower tax for pensioners, at a cost of around 13.5 billion kronor next year.

Anyone earning over 16,000 kronor will benefit from the proposal, while the effects of the change will be less noticeable for people with monthly salaries of 40,000 kronor and above.

“The average worker will see their tax payments cut by around 2,600 kronor a year,” Sweden Democrat finance spokesperson Oscar Sjöstedt said.

Swedish vocabulary: att få igång ekonomin – to kickstart the economy

Outgoing foreign minister denies rift with Sweden’s PM

Sweden’s foreign minister, Tobias Billström, who has said he will step down on Tuesday, has denied that a rift with Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson lies behind the decision. 

He told TT that he had a good relationship with Kristersson, with no issues causing conflict. He denied that Kristersson had put pressure on him to become Sweden’s next EU Commissioner, nor had there been any conflict over who should be the state secretary working at the foreign ministry under him. 

Billström told TT he did not know where these reports were coming from. “I have no idea and no explanation and I won’t speculate,” he said. “I just think you should quit while you’re ahead,” he added. 

Swedish vocabulary: sluta när det är som allra roligast – quit while things are the most fun/quite while you’re ahead