Swedish News:

Mona Sahlin resigns. Containers to become student houses. Swedes buy more shoes than ever. The King under fire. Tête-à-tête in the bedroom.  

  • Mona Sahlin resigns
    Chairman of the Swedish Social Democratic party, Mona Sahlin, will resign. Sahlin held a press conference after a meeting she had with the regional chairmen of the Social democratic party this afternoon. She said at the press conferance that the decision has grown and matured during some time and that she had intended to announce her resignation in December but that the recent debate forced her to do it earlier. In September this year, the Social democrats did their worst election result since the introduction of democracy and now face the challenge to choose both political direction and strategy for the coming years. Sahlin said: “The complexity of what lies ahead can not be underestimated. We have to focus on the political content. I will make sure we do that until the extra congress in March.” It is during this congress, Sahlin will resign. She also said she hopes that now when everyone knows she will resign, the debate will be more focused on the political content.

  • Containers to become student houses
    Containers will be used to quickly build new student houses in order to ease the extremely difficult situation on the student housing market. 220 apartments will be created in Gärdet in Stockholm and they will be fully equipped with shower, toilet and kitchen. Each apartment will be 25 square meters (269.097 ft²).

  • Swedes buy more shoes than ever
    Swedes do not buy as much clothes as they did last year. In fact they buy 4.6% less. Shoes, however, is a different story. For the sixth month straight, Swedes buy more shoes and more expensive shoes to boot (pun intended). According to Svensk Handels (Swedish Retailers') so-called Blixtindex for October and compared to last year, the sales of shoes increased 8.9%.

  • The King under fire
    As predicted, the new book about the Swedish King, “Carl XVI Gustaf – den motvillige monarken”, has stirred up feelings in Sweden and in the ensuing debate, men’s views, particularly the rich upper class men the Swedish King surrounds himself with, have been found wanting. Writes Malin Ullgren in a debate article in daily Dagens Nyheter about the monarch’s escapades: “(--) Show me the Swedish citizen who has not known a thing or two. Let’s just say - we’ve always known. Does that mean we’re done?” No. Of course not. Ullgren points out that with a monarchy come aristocracy and inherited money as well as a patriarchal culture that more than any other social class have kept a view of the genders that can only be described as atavism (ancient or ancestral). “Some say it’s ‘just gossip’,” continues Ullgren. “But few argues how the gossip could be false. It’s rather the content of the gossip - descriptions of upper class men consuming women, that doesn’t seem relevant for further discussions.” Though Ullgren admits that the book is “no biographical masterpiece”, it’s the descriptions that make her stop in her tracks. “Here is a good compilation of the head of state’s most private social life and habits, and ‘kaffeflickor’ (coffee girls) is not an incisive wording or a joke. One eats, one drinks wine, one has coffee and, lastly, something little for one’s sex drive.” Ullgren suggests that it is the lack of establishment in society among these ‘kaffeflickor’ that make them an important ingredient (and powerful attraction) for the King and his posse. They seem easy to frighten into silence. Ullgren also makes allusions to earlier Swedish monarchs, like Swedish King Oscar II, and their extramarital affairs with much younger girls (so called “frillor”). And she concludes: “It’s tragic to have a form of government that hark back to the whore/Madonna culture worthy of Oscar II’s days.”
    Earlier story on the recent book on the Swedish King: http://www.nordstjernan.com/news/people/2818/

  • Tête-à-têtein the bedroom
    A week after the publication of “Carl XVI Gustaf – den motvillige monarken”, Camilla Henemark (who gained fame in the 90’s as the voluptuous singer in the band “Army of Lovers”) confirms that she had a relationship with the Swedish King, an affair she refers to as a “puppy love”. She began receiving invitations, she claims, by the King’s friend Christer Gustafsson with the words “a special person would like to see you”. “Let me say this,” says Camilla, who since has had her own share of problems with drugs and mental health issues, “it’s private what happened behind the doors. I can only say that we went in there and left in separate cars a few hours later.” She also says that the King would tell her: “What do you have to lose?” to which Camilla replied: “I will be hated by all who love Silvia (the queen), which means all of Sweden including myself and my mother. My mother doesn’t want to hear of this.” Otherwise Silvia was not a topic of conversation among the two. Camilla Henemark also says that she feels it’s up to the King himself to talk about his anxieties about the situation, if he ever felt or had any.