Swedish News

Vargas Llosa loves Stieg Larsson... Swedish Parliament said no to EU proposal. Sweden Democrats left church ceremony. Wolves soon in Stockholm region? Terrorist threat in Sweden creates new travel advices.  

  • Vargas Llosa loves Stieg Larsson...
    One of the Nobel Prize winner’s own personal favorite reads, is Stieg Larsson. Larsson has of course an enormous audience all over the world, but it must mean something special to be read by a Nobel prize winner, no? “Welcome among the eternal, literary characters Lisbeth Salander,” he wrote in an article. “That just goes to show you that Mario Vargas Llosa understands what the readers want,” says Eva Gabrielsson, Stieg Larsson’s longtime partner. It was last year that the Spanish paper El Pais published Vargas Llosa’s piece honoring Stieg Larsson. “I read the books with the same feeling of excitement that I had as a child reading about Dumas’ musketeers or the novels of Dickens or Victor Hugo. “ He further called Stieg Larsson’s books “page turners”, but he has objections, too: “The novels aren’t very well-written and their structure is often flawed. However, this doesn’t mean much, because his characters are so sharply drawn.” According to Larsson’s partner Eva Gabrielsson, Stieg Larsson didn’t read Mario Vargas Llosa’s books: “I don’t think he read them, he was much too busy, but had he heard this, I’m sure he would’ve read them,” she said.

  • Swedish Parliament said no to EU proposal
    For the first time ever, the Riksdag rejected a EU proposal with reference to the proximity principle. An unanimous parliament voted no to the EU Commission's proposal that all EU countries should be required to lend money to other member countries unable to deposit insurance and investor protection. The Riksdag believes that the proposal could lead to countries not fully funding their own banking systems.

  • Sweden Democrats left church ceremony
    During a ceremony in a church before the opening of the Swedish parliament earlier in the week some MPs from the nationalistic Sweden Democrats (SD) left the church during a speech by Bishop Eva Brunne. When Brunne talked about how thousands of people are protesting around Sweden against racism, and that a person who believes in God cannot stoop to differentiate between people just because they come from a different background, all Sweden Democrats stood up and promptly left the church. Said Sweden Democrat MP Kent Ekeroth: “The church was agitating against our party and we left as a protest.” Jimmie Åkesson, the party leader, was upset: “It was a very clear attack against us. At demonstrations in Stockholm people were shouting that I should be exiled from Sweden.” MPs from all other parties criticized the Sweden Democrats behavior. “The feeling when they left the church was that of an army marching out,” said Maria Wetterstrand, spokesperson for the Greens. Jimmie Åkesson was wearing a Swedish national costume, one from Blekinge. “It is a great occasion, I am going to meet the king so I wear it to show respect,” he said.

  • Wolves soon in Stockholm region?
    The plans to move in wolves from another country to Sweden will soon be implemented. The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency is now urging the the regional administrative boards to point out areas where to move them. The areas in central Sweden are most probable, which means that wolves will most likely soon be seen in Stockholm county. The reason for this project is that the Swedish wolf strain suffers from inbreeding.

  • Terrorist threat in Sweden creates new travel advices
    The Swedish Foreign Office amends travel advice within Europe after the recent terrorist threats and calls for "increased vigilance and general care." The ministry doesn't advise from traveling to specific countries, but each traveler should be on their guard "in public places, on public transports, at tourist attractions and places where many people move." Exactly how one is supposed to be on guard, and for what has not been specified.