Starting in September, the Leisure Card (Fritidskortet) can be used to partially fund children’s activities outside of school. The Swedish government hopes the initiative will encourage a more active lifestyle.
The Leisure Card is part of the Swedish government’s reform to promote children’s and young people’s participation in sports, culture, outdoor activities and community organizations. The card is used digitally by guardians, and all children between eight and 16 years old receive SEK 500 (€45) per year to spend on regular leisure activities. Families who received housing allowance last year instead get SEK 2,000 (€180) per child on the card.
— As Minister for Social Affairs, I want to make life a little easier for people by creating good conditions for health and community. The Leisure Card is a reform that enables children and young people to have an active leisure time together with others. The family’s finances should not determine whether a child can participate in a leisure activity or not, said Swedish Social Affairs Minister Jakob Forssmed last year.
The association or cultural school must be connected to the Leisure Card system for the subsidy to be valid. The money can also be used to rent equipment. By “regular” it means that the activity needs to take place at least six times during a six-month period.
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The secret documents that Swedish politician Henrik Landerholm (M) forgot at a conference center concerned a meeting with the US about Sweden’s NATO application. Sweden’s security police SÄPO now directs sharp criticism at the government’s sluggish response.
The security-classified documents, which are still missing without a trace, concerned a conversation between then-national security advisor Henrik Landerholm and former US security advisor Jake Sullivan.
The meeting in question, which took place during a decisive phase of the NATO process, focused on strategies to convince Turkey to give the green light to Sweden’s membership. The documents contained sensitive information from both the Swedish Armed Forces and the Security Police and were marked with “H” – the highest degree of secrecy.
According to Bonnier-owned Dagens Nyheter’s investigation, SÄPO has subsequently established that the Government Offices’ security department did not act immediately when the documents’ disappearance was discovered. Contrary to what was previously stated, it took four days before measures were implemented.
During that time, the documents had been lying in an unlocked cabinet at a conference center for at least two nights.
The documents were found by a cleaner with connections to violent extremism. The cleaner later reportedly received €1,300 from a Russian citizen. Whether the money is connected to the documents remains unclear.
Henrik Landerholm (M). Photo: facsimile/Youtube
Denies wrongdoing
The background to the affair has been known previously: in spring 2023, Landerholm left the documents behind in a cabinet in a changing room. This led to charges for negligence with secret information and to his resignation as security advisor.
The prosecutor argues that the disclosure could have caused serious damage to national security. During the investigation, SÄPO discovered that a central email about the incident had been deleted, something that technicians have managed to recover.
Henrik Landerholm denies wrongdoing and claims that the documents never fell into unauthorized hands. His lawyer Johan Eriksson has previously emphasized that Landerholm also questions whether what he is accused of is even criminalized.
– According to my own understanding, I have neither realized nor should have realized that any of the information was security-classified, Landerholm has said in interrogation.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson dismisses allegations of cover-up and refers to the upcoming trial, which begins on August 18.
The opposition, however, demands continued transparency and clearer answers about how the government handles sensitive information.
Facts: Negligent handling of classified information and the charges against Henrik Landerholm
Negligent handling of classified information means that someone through gross negligence reveals or spreads information that could damage Sweden's security. Unlike espionage, no intent to assist a foreign power is required.
If someone is suspected of this crime, it is the Swedish Security Police (Säkerhetspolisen) that investigates whether a crime has been committed.
Prosecutors at the National Security Unit lead the preliminary investigations. The penalty for negligent handling of classified information is fines or imprisonment for up to one year.
The Swedish Security Police criticizes the Government Offices' (Regeringskansliet) handling, including that alerts and measures were delayed by four days.
An email about the incident was deleted but could be recovered by the Security Police's technicians.
Henrik Landerholm denies the charges and claims that the documents never fell into unauthorized hands.
Four people are being treated in hospital, two with life-threatening injuries, after an extensive knife fight at Österportskolan in Malmö, Sweden during the night leading to Saturday.
Eight suspected perpetrators have been arrested and police are investigating the incident as attempted murder.
Shortly after midnight, police were alerted that around 20 people were involved in a large fight on the grounds of Österportskolan in the southern Swedish city of Malmö.
— There was stabbing with knives left and right so four people are in hospital with knife wounds, two of whom are seriously injured, says Michael Lindh, duty commander at police region South, to TT (Swedish news agency).
When police arrived, only a few people remained at the scene, including a stabbed man in his 20s who was taken to hospital by ambulance.
— One person was taken to hospital in an ambulance and three in a private car, explains Filip Annas, press spokesperson for police region South, to Schibsted-owned TV4 Nyheterna.
“More may be involved”
A total of eight people have been arrested, including the four being treated in hospital.
One of those arrested is 15 years old, the others are between 20-25 years old. The incident is classified as attempted murder.
— It cannot be ruled out that more may be involved, states Filip Annas.
The area has been cordoned off for technical investigation. Police have conducted door-to-door inquiries in the area and held witness interviews. More interviews are expected to be held in the coming days.
Unemployment in Sweden rose during the second quarter of 2025, while inflation continues to remain high. The economic uncertainty is also increasingly affecting households and businesses.
According to the Swedish Public Employment Service’s latest figures, 366,496 people were officially registered as unemployed in June 2025, compared to 347,994 people during the same period the previous year. This corresponds to an unemployment level of 6.9 percent, up from 6.6 percent in 2024.
The increase is visible in 15 of the country’s 21 counties, where Västerbotten in northern Sweden has been particularly hard hit following industrial closures. Västmanland in central Sweden also shows a clear increase, while Dalarna and the island of Gotland note some improvement.
Among young people (18–24 years), the situation is particularly serious. 41,939 were registered as unemployed in June, corresponding to 7.8 percent according to the Swedish Public Employment Service’s measure. This occurs while many are newly registering and competition for jobs is increasing.
Experts also point out that the real unemployment rate may be significantly higher than the official figures. Many unemployed people are not registered with the Swedish Public Employment Service and are therefore not included in the statistics.
According to Statistics Sweden’s (SCB) labor force surveys, there are also approximately 200,000 people who are outside the labor force but still want to work – for example, part-time unemployed, long-term unemployed, or people in education who are actively job searching.
The Swedish people continue to struggle with deteriorating household finances while politicians prioritize billions in support to countries at war as well as larger military expenditures.
Inflation continues at high levels
According to the National Institute of Economic Research, price inflation remains at an elevated level in Sweden. Statistics Sweden (SCB) reports that the consumer price index (CPI) rose by 0.8 percent in July compared to the previous month, corresponding to an annual rate of approximately 4.1 percent.
The high annual rate is described as being driven by continued energy price increases, rising transport costs, and disruptions in global supply chains.
The Swedish central bank’s (Riksbank) preferred inflation measure, CPIF (CPI with fixed interest rate), was preliminarily measured at approximately 3.0 percent on an annual basis in July, compared to 2.9 percent in June. The difference between CPI and CPIF is mainly because CPI includes interest costs that have had a major impact, while CPIF excludes these and therefore provides a clearer picture of underlying price developments.
This means that even though price increases based on monthly data are relatively moderate right now, the more stable CPIF inflation continues to be above the Riksbank’s target of 2 percent. For many households, this means continued increased living costs and reduced purchasing power, especially in combination with rising interest rates and a weakened Swedish krona.
Politicians and media promised that mass immigration would make Sandviken, Sweden into an economic success story. Ten years later, reality is much bleaker: half the city is now classified as an exclusion area and compared to notorious problem suburbs like Rinkeby and Tjärna Ängar.
In 2014, left-liberal media, led by the Bonnier-owned Dagens Nyheter (Sweden’s largest daily newspaper), trumpeted that mass migration to Sandviken was a gigantic profitable venture that would make the entire municipality economically prosperous.
“Earns over half a billion from immigration”, read DN’s headline, claiming that each immigrant resident would generate €13,000 annually in revenue for the municipality.
The claims were based on figures in a report by auditing firm PwC and had been commissioned by the municipality itself.
Mass immigration was supposed to be a success for Sandviken. Photo: facsimile/DN
However, the optimistic calculations were based on fantasies and wishful thinking, and within just a couple of years it became clear that the municipality’s financial situation had instead become severely strained – with a budget deficit of €6 million.
— It was a fantasy scenario that was painted. The report was flawed from the beginning. How could anyone stand behind it?wondered Moderate Party opposition councilor Jonny Bratberg in 2019.
“White flight”
And since then, the situation has hardly improved. No billion-euro profits from mass immigration have materialized. Instead, the Swedish government now classifies half of Sandviken as an “exclusion area” – on the same list as notorious immigrant-dense and crime-ridden suburbs like Rinkeby (in Stockholm), Tjärna Ängar in Borlänge, and Gottsunda in Uppsala.
Surveillance cameras now sit on almost every street corner, and Emma Holmqvist, a segregation researcher at Uppsala University, notes that a large portion of the ethnically Swedish population has fled from immigrant-dense parts of Sandviken – and that other Swedes avoid moving there.
— ‘White flight, white avoidance’ is what we call it, says Emma Holmqvist.
— In long-term studies we can see that those with high incomes are partly driving spirals of segregation. They have housing choices that low-income earners lack. They can move away from an area with rental apartments and negative development, simply by purchasing housing.
Swedes don’t want to live with immigrants
She emphasizes, however, that people – regardless of group affiliation – tend to want to live near people who are like themselves, and that this applies to both families with children and high-income earners.
— But one thing that stands out is that many with immigrant backgrounds tend to want to live with more Swedes – the opposite rarely applies to native-born Swedes, she notes.
That Swedes in Sandviken don’t want to live together with immigrants is pointed out as a major and acute problem that must be solved by politicians – for example, by building more rental apartments in villa neighborhoods.
Children as integration tools
The municipality’s politicians have previously attracted attention in connection with a heavily criticized integration initiative where they made the decision to forcibly relocate mainly Swedish children from villa areas to an immigrant-dense, low-performing school in an exclusion area.
The decision enraged many parents and was described as a kind of “social experiment,” where children were involuntarily made into tools in politicians’ integration policy project.
— This is some form of Social Democratic wet dream, where you mix up the students in yet another integration project. You take an A-school and exchange half the students with a D-school, and then you get two C-schools instead – so everyone becomes satisfied and happy. It’s completely insane, of course, commented Jonny Bratberg on the matter in Tidningen Näringslivet (a Swedish business publication).
