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Alliance gears up for next election

The leaders of the parties in Sweden’s governing Alliance are heading to Varberg in western Sweden in an attempt to repeat the approach – adopted by them in 2004 – that led to victory in parliamentary elections two years later.

Published: 5 October 2008 12:46 CEST

Alliance gears up for next election

In an article published in Dagens Nyheter, the four party leaders announced that they would be travelling to Varberg on October 20th for a two-day conference to hammer out a joint platform ahead of the 2010 election.

“When we met in Högfors – at Maud Olofsson’s home – in 2004, there were two years remaining before the next general election. We are now at the same stage in relation to the 2010 election,” wrote Liberal Party leader Jan Björklund, Göran Hägglund of the Christian Democrats, Centre Party chair Maud Olofsson and prime minister and leader of the Moderate Party, Fredrik Reinfeldt.

At Varberg, they plan to further develop cooperation on the election manifesto in a bid to win the continued endorsement of Sweden’s voters in 2010.

Nordic justice ministers meet tech giants on gangs using apps to hire 'child soldiers'

Denmark’s justice minister, Peter Hummelgaard, said in a press release that he hoped to use the meeting on Friday afternoon to discuss how to stop social media and messaging apps being used by gang criminals, who Danish police revealed earlier this year were using them to recruit so-called “child soldiers” to carry out gang killings.

“We have seen many examples of how the gangs are using social media and encrypted messaging services to plan serious crimes and recruit very young people to do their dirty work,” Hummelgaard said. “My Nordic colleagues and I agree that a common front is needed to get a grip on this problem.”

As well as recruitment, lists have been found spreading on social media detailing the payments on offer for various criminal services.

Hummelgaard said he would “insist that the tech giants live up to their responsibilities so that their platforms do not act as hotbeds for serious crimes” at the meeting, which will take place at a summit of Nordic justice ministers in Uppsala, Sweden.

In August, Hummelgaard held a meeting in Copenhagen with Sweden’s justice minister, Gunnar Strömmer, at which the two agreed to work harder to tackle cross-border organised crime, which has seen a series of Swedish youth arrested in Denmark after being recruited to carry out hits in the country.

According to a press release from the Swedish justice ministry, the morning will be spent discussing how to combat the criminal economy and particularly organised crime in ports, with a press release from Finland’s justice ministry adding that the discussion would also touch on the “undue influence on judicial authorities” from organised crime groups.

The day will end with a round table discussion with Ronald S Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, on how anti-Semitism and hate crimes against Jews can be prevented and fought in the Nordic region.

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