Swedish News

Stars at home in Trollhättan. IMF: Sweden slows down in 2011. More right than left. Three years prison for faking cerebral palsy. 

• Stars at home in Trollhättan
  They call it Trollywood these days, Swedish Trollhättan (44 498 citizens), where movies like “Fucking Åmål” (Show Me Love), and “Dogville” have been made. The latter was directed by Danish film director Lars von Trier who again is at it in Trollhättan – this time he’s making a film called “Melancholia” starring Kirsten Dunst, Stellan Skarsgård and Kiefer Sutherland. And Sutherland has already found his favorite place in the city: The fruit department in Konsum. “He was so nice (“görtrevlig”),” said Annelie Bergkvist, a cashier at Konsum. Sutherland visited Konsum with a Swedish assistant. “He’s been here several days in a row,” Bergkvist continued. “But I think he thinks it’s nice to be left alone.” The stars are staying at Vargön, outside Trollhättan, at a place called Ronnums herrgård and in private villas in the surrounding park, but limos take them daily into Trollywood. Evenings are relaxed at Ronnums herrgård, especially after some of the Danish crewmembers bought beer at the local Systembolaget. It’s the fourth time von Trier – who is afraid of flying – makes a movie in Trollhättan. The premiere of “Melancholia” will probably be at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, which is usually where von Trier’s films premiere.
  Stay where the stars stay... www.ronnums.se

• IMF: Sweden slows down in 2011
  The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has made a more pessimistic prognosis of the Swedish economy than Sweden's Minister of Finance Anders Borg. According to IMF, Sweden's economy will grow with 1.9 % in 2011, clearly more pessimistic than Borg's prognosis of 3.8 %. IMF's main reason for its gloomier outlook, is that the global recovery is still insecure and that the stronger Swedish krona may slow down the growth in Sweden.

• More right than left
  A recent poll shows that more Swedes define themselves as “right” than “left” in political terms. This is shown in a survey made by the polling organization SIFO on behalf of news program Rapport at the Swedish television. 35% define themselves as being to the right of the very center, 24% to the left and thirty-three percent exactly in the center. Among people younger than 29 years old, less than twenty percent defined themselves as ‘left’. This result might be considered somewhat surprising considering that the center-right governmental coalition has its weakest support among young people, who tend to vote for the Greens.

• Three years prison for faking cerebral palsy
  A 32 year-old man faked that he suffered from cerebral palsy in order to get financial aid from the state. The police had investigated the man for a while and he was finally outed when participating in a table tennis tournament. The man was convicted to three years in prison and to pay 4.7 million SEK ($638,070.86) in damage to the Swedish Insurance Board (Försäkringskassan).