There are still five months until the elections in Sweden, but the electoral machinery has already started to get underway. And this week there has been a relevant announcement that definitively breaks a historical taboo in the country. The leader of the conservative party (Moderate Party) and current prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, has made it even clearer that the far-right party Sweden Democrats is now considered as legitimate a partner as any other and will be part of the next government if the right-wing bloc wins. He announced this at a press conference accompanied by the leader of the Sweden Democrats, Jimmie Åkesson, who for the first time sees a real option for his party to have responsibilities at the highest level.

The idea that the Nordic countries should develop a joint nuclear weapons program would have been considered absurd and ridiculous just a few years ago. But now times have changed, and the uncertainty over whether the United States is no longer a reliable ally is generating profound Concern in a region that fears Russian aggressionIn this context, a question is circulating that would have been unthinkable before, but which is starting to be heard among various personalities and academics, who are questioning whether the time has come for the Nordic countries to build their own nuclear protection umbrella.

Swedish prosecutors are investigating a man for allegedly prostituting his wife for years and selling her sexual services to more than 120 men, according to public broadcaster SVT. The accused, a former high-ranking member of the Hells Angels organized crime group, has been in custody since October after his wife filed a complaint. The man, being investigated for aggravated pimping, advertised the services on various websites and received payment in return. "We are talking about large-scale pimping, and it involved the callous exploitation of the complainant," prosecutor Ida Annerstedt told the public broadcaster. The formal indictment against the man, who is in his sixties, will be filed on March 13, and the trial is scheduled to begin the following week at the Ångermanland District Court in northern Sweden, where the couple lived. According to Swedish media, the clients came from various parts of Sweden.

"We will regain control of the welfare state." This is one of the promises highlighted by the Swedish Social Democratic Party in its political program. (Six months) In the lead-up to the elections, the debate on the management of public services promises to be one of the key issues shaping the agenda. Sweden in the 1980s, under Olof Palme, became one of the pioneering countries in implementing a comprehensive welfare state and solidified its place in the global imagination as a model society to emulate. The myth, to a greater or lesser degree, persists, especially in Southern Europe, but the reality is that in Sweden much of the management of public services has been privatized, and that supposed welfare paradise no longer exists.

Criminal gangs in Sweden have found children and teenagers to be an easy and cheap way to carry out their dirtiest work. In recent years, news reports about shootings, murders, and explosions have largely featured teenagers as the perpetrators. Boys aged 15 or younger killing other young people on commission. The phenomenon has spread to the point that the existence of... child soldiers in SwedenTo try to combat this, the Swedish government has pushed through a legal amendment to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 13, from the current 15, despite widespread opposition, including from organizations such as the police and prison services.

For years, Sweden earned a reputation as one of the world's most generous countries to refugees. First came the Chileans fleeing Augusto Pinochet's regime; then the refugees from the Balkan wars; and ten years ago, the Syrians escaping the civil war and Bashar al-Assad's dictatorship. In 2015, the Scandinavian country received some 163,000 asylum seekers; only Germany took in more. Now, this open-door policy has been completely abandoned, especially since the current conservative government came to power in 2022. with the necessary crutch of the far-right party Sweden Democrats.

In Sweden, if you want to find the center of a city, the most effective way is usually to search for the location of Espresso House, a Starbucks-style coffee chain ubiquitous in the country. In Kiruna, in the far north of the country, the search for Espresso House takes you away from the historic center, about four kilometers away, to where this small town is relocating. This is where the world's largest underground iron ore mine is located. Active since 1898, it is forcing the city to relocate, gradually sinking.

The Swedish Security Services (Säpo) are under scrutiny after a leak of confidential information was revealed that could have seriously compromised the security of the country's top political figures. These leaks have been recurring for years, although in principle it was not a deliberate act, but rather malpractice. of some of its members. According to the newspaper Dagens Nyheter, Several bodyguards for members of the government and the royal family have publicly shared their workouts on Strava, an app that records routes taken by bike, running, or walking.

Sweden has declared war on OnlyFans and made it illegal to buy personalized sex videos online. This platform, where Users can only view content if they pay a recurring subscription the person who publishes them is one of those affected by a new law that will come into force on July 1. Sweden was the first country in the world to criminalize clients and not prostitutes, whose 1999 law prohibits the purchase of sexual services. Now, the Scandinavian country is updating its Penal Code to reflect the new realities and extending the ban to certain online practices as well.

What do companies such as robotics leader ABB, pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, technology company Ericsson, stock market operator Nasdaq, former car manufacturer Saab, and iconic appliance supplier Electrolux have in common? Although it may be surprising, all of them and many more are controlled by more or less the same Swedish family, the Wallenbergs.

The Swedish government has been shaken in recent weeks by several events. that could be worthy of a political thriller script: sex scandals, alleged spies, and sudden deaths. It all began on May 8, when the government appointed former ambassador to Ukraine Tobias Thyberg as its new National Security Advisor. That same day, he was scheduled to travel with the prime minister to a meeting in Oslo. But a few hours later, he resigned. The reason was that half an hour after his appointment was announced, someone had sent both the government and some media outlets compromising photos of Thyberg, which he himself had sent via a dating app years earlier.

"I love bourbon, but is there an alternative that isn't American?"; "I'm going to buy a new electric toothbrush. Oral B seems to be from the US. What are you calling me, Philips? Or do you have any advice on Swedish or European toothbrushes?"; "Is there any dishwashing liquid that isn't from the US?" These are some of the latest messages on a Facebook page by Swedish users calling for a boycott of US products in protest of the White House's policy shift since Donald Trump's return to power.

The Swedish government, constituted of Social Democrats and Greens, has fallen because of the censure motion presented by the Left Party together with the xenophobic Sweden Democrats party. The basis of this political crisis is the government's proposal to reform the law regulating rents to liberalize prices in newly built housing. The rejection of the government has had the support of 181 MPs, six more than than is required. The Prime Minister, Stephan Lofven, now has a week to decide whether to call early elections, which would be the first since 1958, or whether to give the option of forming a new coalition government.

The name Jonas Falk probably goes unnoticed in Catalonia but he is well known in Sweden, where he is said to be the country's most famous criminal. Falk, who has been nicknamed 'the Swedish Pablo Escobar', was acquitted by the Swedish courts but has been found guilty in Barcelona: he has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for laundering millions of euros that came from drug trafficking, despite the fact that the prosecution was seeking 20 years in prison. He was handed the longest sentence in the month-long trial against him and eleven other defendants, four of whom were acquitted. He "created a structure of natural and legal persons at the international level" to make investments, at least in Spain, to hide the money obtained from drug trafficking, says the ruling, which ARA has had access to.