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Sweden To Continue Violating The Rights Of National Minorities

 

Criticism of the government's cuts to national minorities: "Catastrophic"

Minority expert Lennart Rohdin, chairman of the Swedish Finns delegation Markus Marttila and minority strategist Anna Ågren react to the government's cuts. Source: SVT

The Sweden's government is reducing the state grant distributed to administrative municipalities for national minority languages ​​and the state grant to organizations representing national minorities from January 2025. The news came as a shock to minority representatives.

The government is now reducing the basic state grant distributed to administrative municipalities for national minority languages ​​from the current 660,000 kronor to 565,000 kronor ($ 51 000) per year.

66 of Sweden's municipalities belong to the administrative area for Finnish, 25 municipalities for Sámi and nine municipalities for Meänkieli These municipalities are obliged to offer their residents services in minority languages ​​and to strengthen the position of the languages ​​and opportunities to practice their culture to a greater extent than in other Swedish municipalities.

“This came as a terrible shock”

Karlskoga’s minority strategist Anne Ågren says that the cuts came as a complete surprise to the municipality.

It is incredibly irresponsible. No one had ever talked about this. Has there been any consultation with the minority or has it just been decided suddenly?

Organisational grants halved

The state grant to organisations representing national minorities is being halved from 13.3 million to 6.7 million.

Markus Marttila from Uppsala was elected the new chairman of the Swedish Finns' delegation in April 2023. Photo: Minna Pyykölä / Sveriges Radio

We have to make quite extensive changes in our operations, says Markus Marttila, chairman of the Swedish Finns’ delegation.

Minority expert Lennart Rohdin believes that the government’s cuts in funding for national minorities are a reaction to the protests that the minorities have made.

Lennart Rohdin is an expert on national minorities and minority policy. Source: Trelleborgs Museer

The money will be directed to the language centres' operations – Robbing Peter to pay Paul

The funds released from the cuts will be spent on language centres for national minority languages. The new mission and future of the language centres were uncertain as recently as last week. Due to the uncertainty of their continued mission, the staff was also laid off earlier this autumn. The new mission now includes a smaller budget, which also means reduced staff.

The cuts will come into effect at the end of the year. The Minister responsible for minority affairs, Minister of Culture Parisa Liljestrand, has not answered the questions posed by Uutiset. Instead, she commented on the government's decision in general terms via e-mail.

Source: SVT Nyheter (in Swedish)

15.01.2025
 
 

 

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