Suecia (Continuación)

Europa

Después de decenios de observancia de normas más o menos estables y tónicas predecibles, en las últimas semanas la política sueca ha entrado en un territorio inexplorado. Muchos están sorprendidos de que el Gobierno se desplomara y tuviera que convocar nuevas elecciones tan sólo dos meses después de haber entrado en funciones. Al fin y al cabo, Suecia había sido un hito poco común de éxito inspirador en Europa desde la crisis financiera mundial de 2008. Entonces, ¿qué ha ocurrido?

La causa inmediata de la caída del Gobierno fue el voto del Parlamento en contra de la propuesta de presupuesto de la coalición de centro izquierda y a favor del presentado por los partidos de la Alianza de centro derecha, que habían formado el gobierno anterior.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaMundoOriente Próximo

Sweden is arguably the most “European” of European countries by virtue of its historically cohesive nationhood (“one big family”), militaristic and socialist legacies, untrammeled immigration, unmatched political correctness, and its supercilious claim to the status of a “moral superpower.” These features also make it perhaps the most alien of European countries to an American conservative.

In this context, I offer a summary and paraphrase of my discussion held with two senior members of the permanent bureaucracy in the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs during a recent visit to Stockholm. Our affable but pointed discussion focused on the Middle East, on which we agreed on almost nothing.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Sweden's chase for what is widely suspected to be a submerged Russian submarine operating within its territorial waters can't help but remind older Swedes of the fact that, during the Cold War, Swedish waters were thought to be regularly covertly probed by submarines belonging to the Soviet Union.

Indeed, back in 1981, the "Whiskey on the Rocks" incident saw a Soviet attack submarine carrying nuclear-tipped torpedoes run aground on the shoals not far from the Swedish naval base at Karlskrona.

Fast forward more than three decades, and Vladimir Putin's Russia is by no means the threat -- materially or ideologically -- that the Soviet Union was during the Cold War.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaInternacionalOTAN, ,

Recent developments off the coast of Sweden raise many questions, and we do not as yet have answers.

Last week, Swedish media reported that the country's military was searching for an underwater vessel, possibly a Russian submarine, after an emergency radio transmission allegedly made in Russian (although Russia has denied it has any vessels in Swedish waters).

Now, as the Swedish Navy continues to search for the unidentified undersea vessel that may have penetrated the country's territorial waters, it's worth keeping in mind some key facts to help place the issue in perspective.

For a start, anti-submarine warfare is complex and very difficult to execute properly.…  Seguir leyendo »

Sedki Alimam fled Syria in 2011 and came to Sweden in January 2014. A graphic designer, he lives in a small apartment in Uppsala, and is looking for work. Martin Edstrom for The New York Times

EuropaUnión EuropeaPolítica Inmigración,

The narrow victory of the left-leaning Social Democratic Party in Sweden’s elections last Sunday marked a broad shift in its politics. But a new coalition government is unlikely to reconsider one of the country’s most challenging policies: its response to the Syrian civil war. Sweden has taken an open-door approach to people fleeing the conflict, accepting more Syrians than any other European country.

Never mind that Sweden has double-digit youth unemployment. That there have been riots in immigrant neighborhoods in Stockholm. That there is a severe housing shortage for new arrivals. Or that the Swedish Migration Board, which handles asylum seekers, needs a drastic budget increase — almost $7 billion — to cover soaring costs over the next few years.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaPolítica Inmigración

“I’m ashamed of my country,” a member of Sweden’s Liberal People’s Party told reporters in a shivering voice during a broadcast on Sweden’s TV4 on Sunday, as she reacted to the results of national elections. After eight years in power, her party’s center-right bloc had been swept out in favor of a left-wing coalition built around the Social Democrats. But her party’s loss and the power shift from right to left were not what caused her outrage. It was a rise in support for a far-right party that is both undermining Sweden’s reputation for tolerance and testing its commitment to democratic process.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaEconomía

Europe has been the source of unremitting gloom and doom for four years. The euro crisis has threatened the global economy. Most Americans, and many Europeans, have become exasperated with European nations’ failure to respond decisively to their troubles.

So it is a refreshing — and brilliant — decision by President Obama to visit Sweden and meet with Scandinavian prime ministers en route to next week’s Group of 20 summit in Russia. Sweden escaped the crisis in its neighborhood, and it quickly restored steady and stable growth. It presents a proven model for the types of reforms needed in much of Europe and many other parts of the world, including the United States, and Obama should carry this success story to the full G-20.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Much too often, diplomacy is behind the curve in struggling with developments unfolding in ways not foreseen.

But when the Arctic Council meets in Kiruna in northern Sweden in the next few days, it is a rare example of a framework set up to deal with events well before they really start to happen, thus making it possible to shape events rather than reacting to things that have already gone wrong.

The Arctic Council was set up between the eight Arctic states, with representatives of the indigenous peoples as permanent participants, in Ottawa in 1996. But in its first years it hardly registered on the international scene.…  Seguir leyendo »

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With global warming rapidly melting Arctic sea ice and glaciers making valuable stores of energy and minerals more accessible, voices of doom are warning of inevitable competition and potential conflict — a new “Great Game” among the five Arctic coastal nations.

In fact, the Arctic states of North America, Europe and Russia, working with indigenous peoples and a number of non-Arctic states, already have taken steps to ensure just the opposite: that the Arctic remains a zone of cooperation, peace and stable, sustainable development.

The Arctic Council — the intergovernmental organization for the eight Arctic states: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States — has created a forum for cooperation and momentum toward a responsible approach to the region’s issues.…  Seguir leyendo »

A poster depicting Jallow Momodou as a slave

EuropaUnión Europea,

Most people would consider female genital mutilation (FGM) to be a deeply harrowing issue, and that its victims should be treated with respect and sensitivity. In Sweden, though, it seems it's a laughing matter, and that racial slurs can be thrown in too.

Sweden's culture minister, Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth celebrated the country's World Art Day by visiting an art installation created to highlight the FGM issue. But, shockingly the artist chose to do this by means of a cake depicting a stereotypical black woman connected to the artist's grotesquely blacked-up face. The exclusively white audience cheered as the minister laughingly cut the cake around the "clitoris", and fed it to the artist.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Last January David Cameron organised the UK Nordic Baltic summit, at which his personal friendship with the Swedish prime minister and fellow Conservative leader, Fredrik Reinfeldt, was clearly matched by a growing interest in that favourite of left-leaning thinkers, the Swedish model. This week, the same group of leaders met once again, this time under the title Northern Future Forum.

What are we to make of Cameron's interest in Sweden, given its historical association with social democracy and a vaguely socialist "cradle-to-grave" welfare safety net? The simple answer is that, in recent years, Sweden has received just as much attention for successfully handling its economy through the global crisis.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocialEuropaUnión Europea, ,

Si usted visita Estocolmo, le aconsejo que, además de los museos, los palacios, el barrio antiguo y las islas, visite un modesto barrio del Sur de la ciudad llamado Rinkeby. La inmensa mayoría de sus pobladores son familias inmigrantes y, me dicen, se trata de uno de los distritos más pobres del país, aunque la idea de pobreza en Suecia, que ha alcanzado el más alto nivel de vida del mundo junto con Suiza, tenga poco que ver con lo que para el resto del planeta esta palabra significa.

Lo importante de conocer en Rinkeby es el colegio público, una institución que es un espejo de lo que debería ser la sociedad humana, el mundo entero, si prevalecieran entre nosotros los mortales la sensatez, el tino y el espíritu práctico.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaEconomía

No todo en la Unión Europea está podrido. Algunos países se destacan por haber cimentado su modelo socioeconómico con bases más sólidas en la segunda parte de la década que concluye. Ellos muestran el camino al resto de Europa. Suecia es uno de esos casos. En el último trimestre, este reino escandinavo alcanzó una tasa de crecimiento económico «asiática» —6,9 por ciento— en comparación con el año pasado. Pese a que las reformas del gobernante bloque «burgués» —el Partido Moderado, el Partido Centrista, el Partido Liberal Popular y el Partido Demócrata Cristiano— son más graduales de lo que quisieran espíritus más audaces, Suecia ha venido reduciendo de manera sostenida los excesos estatistas de la era socialista que fue epónima en este país durante la mayor parte del siglo XX.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Today the leaders of the five Nordic states are meeting to discuss the possibility of creating a Nordic federal state. Ever since the Kalmar Union of the kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden – reaching to Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Shetland and Orkney – collapsed in 1523, the idea of reinstating some sort of a supra-national Nordic state regularly crops up. Now this old idea has resurfaced in a book the Swedish history professor Gunnar Wetterberg submitted to the Nordic Council in Reykjavik today.

Wetterberg argues that together the Nordics (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, with the three micro territories the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Aland), will be stronger and more stable and prosperous than they are on their own.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea,

What surprises me most after the Swedish elections is that so many people seem surprised the ultraconservative Sweden Democrats party (SD) has made it into parliament. From no representation it now has nearly 6% of the vote, which means that it will get 20 MPs; it also destroys the previous centre-right majority and creates an uncertain situation in parliament. Sweden will get a weak government, one that must rest on different minorities, since all the parties have spent most of the post-election debate guaranteeing that they won't in any way co-operate with the SD.

This went so far on election night that the leader of the Left party, Lars Ohly, refused to have his makeup done at the same time as Jimmie Åkesson, the SD leader.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea,

The Church of Sweden's decision to make no distinction in its marriage service between straight and gay couples is not as straightforward a triumph for liberal attitudes as it may seem. For one thing, half the church's bishops signed a letter condemning it; but the extraordinary decision-making structure of the Swedish church means they have no special voice in its decisions.

The church is run by an assembly that is elected directly – in theory by all its members. In practice, the turnout is about 10% and the great majority are elected on the tickets of secular political parties. This is great for the political parties, who thus get another way to reward their members with office and a chance to practise getting out the voters.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea

The Swedes are coming. As Europe lurches to the right amid financial and climate meltdown, a horde of cool-headed Nordic warriors are riding to the rescue. Sweden's EU presidency from 1 July will be greeted as a breath of fresh air after the Czech leadership, what with the latter's antics on climate change and arousal chez Berlusconi. What the EU needs is a whiff of sense and reason. And who better to provide it than the social-minded, climate-conscious Swedes?

Sweden still sets hearts racing across Europe. The "Swedish model" might bring up thoughts of a nubile blonde rather than a strong social state, but it is in the latter incarnation that my home country stirs the passions of left-leaning Europeans.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocialEuropaUnión Europea, , ,

One of my best friends is a Finn. She came to England at 16, but when it came to giving birth to her first baby 13 years later, there was no hesitation: she went home. When she returned, along with her stories of state of the art healthcare, she brought tangible evidence of the largesse of the Nordic welfare state: each new mother was given a box of exquisite new baby clothes and equipment. Everything was a perfect mint green and lavender. In contrast, when it was my turn several years later to give birth in the UK in an overcrowded, dirty hospital, a harassed nurse handed me a plastic bag stuffed with leaflets advertising baby products and a couple of free samples.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Aboard Training Vessel Arctic Tern, off Newport, R.I.

Russia’s flag-planting caper at the North Pole last week captured the world’s attention. Harking back to the heady days of colonial imperialism and perhaps the success of Sputnik, a resurgent Russia dispatched from Murmansk a nuclear-powered icebreaker and a research vessel armed with two mini-submarines to stake a symbolic claim to the Arctic Ocean’s riches. Russia hopes that leaving its flag encased in titanium more than 13,200 feet beneath the frozen surface bolsters its 2001 claim that the Lomonosov Ridge is a geological extension of its continental shelf and thus the 460,000 square miles of resource-rich Arctic waters stretching from the North Pole to Eurasia fall under the Kremlin’s jurisdiction.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Era una noche invernal de febrero. Pese a la evidencia del cambio climático, la ciudad sueca de impronunciable nombre -Omsköldsvik- recibía nuestro breve paseo desde un 'ristorante' italiano con una ráfaga de viento helado a veinte grados bajo cero. Me acordaba de Franco Battiato y su «viento a treinta grados bajo cero», pese a que en esta población de poco más de 20.000 habitantes ninguna calle recuerde a la Perspectiva Nevsky de la canción y a que desde luego no hubiera rastro alguno de Igor Stravinski, tampoco había más viandantes a eso de las diez de la noche que nosotros.

¿Y qué hacíamos allí?…  Seguir leyendo »