Sunday, September 28, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

Tesla’s Sweden manager: “No internal pressure for collective bargaining agreements”

Published 19 March 2024
– By Editorial Staff
IF Metall has been on strike since November last year.
2 minute read

Tesla’s head of Sweden, Jens Stark, is now breaking the silence in the conflict with the union. He says there is no “internal pressure” to introduce collective agreements.

IF Metall’s strike against Tesla has been going on for almost five months, with 120 people on strike, while a number of other unions in Sweden and other Nordic countries have introduced so-called sympathy measures to support the strike. These measures have included not unloading Tesla cars at Swedish ports, not sending out license plates with Postnord, and not picking up garbage at Tesla facilities.

Union representatives have appeared in various media, but Tesla’s Swedish subsidiary, TM Sweden, has remained silent. Now, however, they have decided to break the silence about the strike. The company’s Swedish manager Jens Stark believes that many of the employees do not want the collective agreement that IF Metall is striking for.

– There is no pressure at all internally to introduce a collective agreement, and since it is voluntary and our employees have excellent benefits and pay that they are happy with, we have used our legal right not to sign, he told financial tabloid Dagens Industri.

Despite the concessions, the company has managed to keep operations running as usual, according to Stark. Among other things, transportation is done by truck instead of by sea, license plates are sent directly to customers’ homes, and even waste management has been resolved. The latest negotiations took place on November 6, and Stark says they are open to dialogue, but stand by their previous decisions.

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Swedish government opens wallet to combat “racism”

Published 25 September 2025
– By Editorial Staff
"Racism is a threat to our entire democracy", says Swedish Gender Equality Minister Nina Larsson of the Liberal Party.
2 minute read

The Swedish government is now allocating an additional €900,000 to long-term work against “racism, antisemitism, antiziganism, anti-Muslim and anti-Black racism as well as discrimination against the Sami people”.

The initiative builds on the national action plan that the government has used for several years to combat alleged discrimination and prejudice.

The measures will continue to be implemented within schools, working life, welfare and the justice system and will be coordinated by, among others, the Forum for Living History (a Swedish government agency). The goal is to combat everything from “hate crimes” to subtle prejudices, and the efforts are to continue at least until 2029.

Racism is not just an attack on the individual person – it is a threat to our entire democracy. We can never accept that people’s rights and life chances are limited by prejudice and discrimination. That is why we are now taking a long-term approach to the work against racism. It requires perseverance, continuity and political will – and that is exactly what we are delivering, says Swedish Gender Equality Minister Nina Larsson (L).

Critics point out, however, that Sweden according to several international comparisons is among the world’s least racism-affected countries and that the problems often exist on the margins.

Symbolic action or real change?

Current and previous Swedish governments’ recurring focus on the “fight against racism” can be perceived as disproportionate, and some question whether the resources are being used effectively, or whether it is more about a political symbolic action.

At the same time, there are studies that indicate that certain groups, for example Afro-Swedes, face discrimination within important areas of society. It is a balancing act between acknowledging real problems and avoiding magnifying them into general societal crises.

The Swedish government repeatedly emphasizes that racism is “a threat to the entire democracy”, and that a sustained, long-term approach is therefore required.

In comment sections and on social media, however, many Swedes wonder when the “fight against racism” transitions into becoming a routine and unjustified political doctrine in a society that is already ranked among the most tolerant and welcoming in the world.

Screen time decreases among Swedish children

Published 24 September 2025
– By Editorial Staff
More children up to eight years old read daily.
2 minute read

Children and young people are spending less time in front of screens, according to a new report. The decrease is most pronounced in younger age groups, where reading has taken up more space.

The report “Kids & Media 2025” examines Swedish children and young people’s media usage and their attitudes toward media. The study is based on a national survey among children and young people up to 18 years old and represents the most comprehensive statistical study in this field.

The results show that the use of mobile phones, tablets and computer games is decreasing among young people in most age groups. The clearest decline is found in the 9-12 age group, where daily use of digital devices decreased by 38 minutes per day in 2024 compared to 2022. A decrease of 21 minutes during the same period is also seen among 13-16-year-olds.

Furthermore, the proportion of nine-year-olds who do not have access to their own mobile phone has almost quadrupled since 2022. A similar development is also seen among younger children.

Increased concern among parents

Yvonne Andersson, author of the report, believes the decrease is due to parents becoming more restrictive because of increased concern about the harm that screen time can contribute to.

Many parents express increased concern about the negative consequences of media use, she tells Swedish public broadcaster SVT.

More read daily

The report also shows that more children up to eight years old read daily. Among children aged 9-12, 39 percent read every day. According to Andersson, more children read books or newspapers daily today than when the surveys began in 2012.

One can imagine this is a positive consequence of them spending less time on digital media, and therefore having more time for reading.

Female paramedic killed in stabbing in Sweden

Deteriorating safety

Published 21 September 2025
– By Editorial Staff
The suspected murderer is arrested by tactical police units.
3 minute read

A female paramedic has died following a knife attack in Harmånger in Nordanstig municipality, Sweden, on Saturday. A 25-year-old man has been detained on suspicion of murder.

Police received an emergency call at 11:30 AM about an assault in a residential apartment complex area.

— We were told that an ambulance worker had been injured by a sharp object that a man at the scene had, says Maria Hall, police press spokesperson for the central region.

The woman was taken to hospital but her life could not be saved. A neighbor who knows the suspect recounts:

— My little 12-year-old daughter, who was out with the dog, saw how the ambulance woman came out bleeding. I know the guy who did this. As we understand it, he himself called for an ambulance because he was in such bad condition.

According to the neighbor, several people witnessed the attack.

— There were several witnesses standing outside the entrance when the injured woman ran out. She threw herself out of the apartment after he had stabbed her. The guy stood with two knives in his hands. People screamed at him and then he went back into the apartment again. He is dangerous. That’s well known.

Residents had to stay indoors

The area was cordoned off and residents were advised to stay indoors. Sweden’s National Task Force arrived at 2:30 PM. A female neighbor heard screams from the stairwell and then saw the paramedic on the ground.

— Someone else performed CPR. She kept going for a very long time, she tells Bonnier newspaper Expressen, and explains that she was forced to stay inside for two hours.

— The police called me and said I wasn’t allowed to go out into the stairwell, because I was safer inside.

Two hours after the emergency call, the man was arrested and later detained on probable cause suspected of murder.

Ambulance union: Murder could have been prevented

Henrik Johansson, union secretary at the Swedish Ambulance Union, believes the death could have been prevented with better information sharing between police and healthcare services.

— For many years we have lacked the possibility of flagging, that is, information exchange between police and emergency dispatch, where one could otherwise find out if the person appears in crime and suspect registers – if the person has repeatedly threatened ambulance and rescue personnel, he says to Schibsteds-owned TV4.

— It gets red-flagged. A textbook case of someone who should not have received an ambulance. So it would have made a real difference in this case.

The union has been pushing this issue for 20 years without success.

— We have been so frustrated about this – and we have really been nagging. We have participated in the blue light investigation. We have written articles about it. We bring it up almost daily in various forums. But the employer remains silent.

“A tragedy”

Sineva Ribeiro, chairperson of the Swedish Association of Health Professionals, agrees with the criticism.

— Here the employer has a great responsibility to never accept threats and violence against healthcare personnel.

Region Gävleborg (the regional healthcare authority) has activated crisis support for colleagues.

— It is a tragedy. It is a terrible incident. There are upset emotions and we are now taking care of staff and relatives, says Susanna Björklund, deputy director of health and medical services.

Swedish MP reported for hate crime after calling genocide-critical Jews “beasts”

Published 19 September 2025
– By Editorial Staff
The Moderates have promised to crack down hard on what they describe as antisemitism. How Karlsson's political future is affected by his comments remains to be seen.
2 minute read

Swedish Moderate Party MP and group leader Mattias Karlsson became furious when members of a Jewish leftist organization protested against an Israeli soldier being invited to lecture at the same address where a Jewish independent school is also located.

Karlsson called the demonstrators “beasts” who spread “antisemitism in its purest form” – and therefore he has now himself been reported for incitement against an ethnic group.

“This is not about Israel. This is not about politics. This is about standing outside a Jewish school, when children are going home, with banners that blame their identity. This is everyday terror. This is antisemitism in its purest form. Those who do this are not activists, they are beasts”, Karlsson wrote on X on Monday while sharing an image from the protest.

People with deeper knowledge than the Swedish Moderate politician quickly explained that the protest was not directed at any schoolchildren but at a lecture by a genocide-accused IDF soldier held at the same address, and that it was rather those who invited the soldier who should be blamed.

However, Karlsson did not respond to this criticism and left his post up, which was also shared by Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard (M) and other Swedish top politicians.

Calling Jews “beasts” is extremely controversial, and according to several observers is probably also criminal. For this reason, the Moderate Party group leader has now been reported to police for the hate crime of incitement against an ethnic group.

“The legal process must take its course”

“Calling peaceful demonstrators beasts is a classic rhetorical tool to justify oppression and portray political opponents as less worthy”, says Alexandra Esser, from the activist group Jewish Anti-Zionist Alliance, which is behind the report.

“When this is directed at Jews, whose historical vulnerability Karlsson himself often highlights, the action is particularly cynical and dangerous”, she continues.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s government has promised to focus particularly on combating what it describes as antisemitism and crimes directed against Jews, but it is unclear whether Karlsson’s latest statement will affect his future within the party.

To TT, the Moderate Party’s press service writes that “if a report has now been filed, the legal process must naturally take its course. For now, it does not affect Mattias Karlsson’s work in the Riksdag”.

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