Sweden's new mobile phone alert system 'failed to deliver'
SE-Alert – the mobile phone-based emergency alert system tested in Stockholm on Monday – failed to deliver messages to all residents, Mikael Frisell, director-general of the Swedish Civil Defence Agency, has told the TT newswire.
The warning message sent out on Monday afternoon was too long for the configuration set by the publicly owned telecoms operator Telia, meaning it did not reach all mobile phones
“Telia did not follow the specifications we had set. They had set the character limit too low. That caused the entire message and transmission to be blocked," Frisell explained.
Telia has now identified and fixed the problem, he said, and the system will again be tested – this time across the whole of Sweden – on December 7th.
Swedish vocabulary: ett konfigurationsfel – a faulty configuration
Social Democrat leader says 'new direction for Sweden' is within reach
A victory in the election is “within reach”, Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson has told TT in an interview, while promising a pension for working people during the next parliamentary term.
In the interview, Andersson argued that the business community should be more worried about a government including the far-right Sweden Democrats than about a government led by her.
“They [the Sweden Democrats] have no policies for growth or jobs. And they are opposed to the new technology that, among others, the Wallenberg family has invested in,” Andersson told TT, referring to comments by Jacob Wallenberg, chairman of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise and a leading figure in the country’s most powerful business-owning family, about the Swedish election in the Financial Times.
Wallenberg said there that tax proposals and proposals for shorter working hours and for a 'billionaires tax' from one or more left-green parties were “deeply concerning”.
“Anyone who has followed me during my years as finance minister and prime minister knows that we pursued economic policies that were good for Sweden and for the business community,” Andersson said.
Swedish vocabulary: inom räckhåll – within reach
Liberals near parliamentary threshold in new poll
The Liberals are closer than ever to the 4 percent parliamentary threshold, winning the support of 3.5 percent of voters in a new poll by Ipsos.
“The Liberals appear to be continuing to grow,” Nicklas Källebring, an opinion analyst at Ipsos, told DN, which ordered the poll.
At the same time, the Social Democrats are continuing to lose support, according to the poll, falling to 27.1 percent.
Despite this, the poll gives the opposition the advantage, with 52.7 percent compared with 44.9 percent for the Tidö parties.
In a Novus poll published earlier on Monday, the Liberals were above the parliamentary threshold, with 4.3 percent.
Swedish vocabulary: ett övertag – an advantage/lead
Left Party drops eight more candidates over posts
The Left Party removed another eight candidates from its electoral lists over the weekend after the Expressen newspaper reported that the candidates had shared antisemitic, pro-Russian or hateful views.
“The Left Party has a long way to go, and right now it is going in the wrong direction,” Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson said in a written comment to Aftonbladet.
The posts included praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the terrorist-designated political party Hamas and antisemitic conspiracy theories, the newspaper, which analysed the social media accounts of Left Party candidates, reported.
All the candidates were standing in municipal elections, with one also on the parliamentary election list.
“They are gone, and they weren’t in an electable position on the list anyway,” Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar told Expressen.
Earlier this year, 25 people were removed from the Left Party’s lists following similar revelations.
“This is a rot that runs deep within the left. Nooshi Dadgostar and her party are playing it down, minimising it and trying to forget it,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said in a written comment to TT.
Swedish vocabulary: valbar – electable
Sweden Democrats pledge lowest migration and cheapest petrol in EU
The Sweden Democrats have said that their highest priority in all budget negotiations will be that Sweden has the lowest level of migration and the lowest fuel prices in the EU.
Petrol and diesel prices will be the party’s “highest priority in all budget negotiations”, the party said in its election manifesto, published on Monday.
“We are the guarantee of that,” the party's leader, Jimmie Åkesson, said at a press conference in Nyköping.
The Sweden Democrats want Sweden to have the lowest number of residence permits granted in the entire EU in 2027.
“Now that asylum reception is close to zero, we will strive for as little migration as possible,” the party says in its election manifesto.
Sweden Democrats: beviljade uppehållstillstånd – approved residency permits