Minority issues

Mirja Räihä (S)

Mr. Speaker! Today we are to discuss report KU18, which contains all the motions on minority issues that have been submitted during the general motion period. The motions concern Jewish life in Sweden, the indigenous status for the Tornedalians, a new electoral system for elections to the Sami Parliament, and much more. They differ significantly from one another, but I believe that is due to the differences among the various national minorities and that the description of the problem is also different. National minorities are truly not a homogeneous group.

The Swedish-Finnish group adheres to the language, and the problem is that the municipalities should be able to offer both preschool and elderly care in Finnish.

The Sámi, on the other hand, have problems with the business sector's encroachment into what they consider to be their own, that is to say, land for reindeer husbandry and hunting and fishing rights.

The Jewish group has to live with antisemitism, a phenomenon that has persisted for centuries and which we constantly need to work against. The work against antisemitism is never finished. The discussion must be alive at all times.

Roma inclusion very often concerns problems in the labor market. It is simply harder for them to get jobs.

Tornedalingar have also experienced difficult times. They have experienced how the authorities have wanted to take both their language and their culture from them. Tornedalingar were subjected to a harsh assimilation policy for a time, which caused the language to be on the verge of disappearing.

Now the truth commission has completed its work for the Tornedalians and with its report As if we never existed - in Meänkieli it is called Aivan ko meitä ei olis ollukhaan - which has been submitted to the government. There are proposals for a continued reconciliation process, visibility and empowerment, and how rights can be realized and expanded. There are also goals for language revitalization and cultural promotion.

The Commission also submits proposals for further investigations, including regarding the minority's status as an indigenous people. Therefore, we Social Democrats believe it is better to await a proposal from the government on a whole than to move for approval of individual motions now.

It now remains to be seen how the government will handle the issues in the report and which of the proposals will eventually end up on the Riksdag's table.

For the minority languages, there are now four language centers on site: for Finnish, meänkieli, Yiddish and Romani chib. The Institute for Languages and Folklore, Isof, is an important actor even though the language centers are new. Isof has been tasked with establishing language centers for the national minority languages. Since earlier, the Sami Parliament has been responsible for several Sami language centers.

National language centers shall provide support and knowledge that facilitate for language speakers throughout the country to maintain, reclaim and develop their language so that the national minority languages can live on in Sweden. Language centers have been established for Finnish in Uppsala, for Yiddish in Stockholm, for Meänkieli in Kiruna and Övertorneå, and for Romani in Stockholm. The language centers have commenced their activities and produced the first operational plans during 2023.

Mr. Speaker! Revitalizing and preserving languages is a long-term task. It is not a project for just a few years. If I may make a request, it is of course that the support for both the language centers and the resource libraries that exist for the national minority languages is made permanent. The consequence is that, right now, all language centers in June must notify their employees of dismissal due to lack of work, as they do not know if the operations will continue.

Mr. Speaker! The goal of the minority policy is to provide protection for the national minorities and strengthen their opportunities for influence as well as support the historical minority languages so that they are kept alive.

Minority policy is important, but nevertheless, we Social Democrats believe that the motions in the report can be rejected. There is, of course, a reason for that. The previous government made some reinforcements that need to be evaluated. There are also investigations that were started by the previous government but which the Riksdag has not yet made decisions on. For this reason, we need to wait for what results emerge.

The Government decided in June 2022 on a special action program for the work against antisemitism. The program aims to complement the national plan against racism and all forms of hostility and hate crimes. The program contains measures for the period 2022-2024 and is in line with the EU's action plan against racism.

In June 2022, the government also commissioned a special investigator to submit proposals for a national strategy for strengthening Jewish life in Sweden, with a focus on the transmission of Jewish culture and Yiddish to younger and future generations.

In November 2021, the government decided to establish a committee in the form of a truth commission for the Sámi people, which shall map out and review the policy that has been conducted towards the Sámi in a historical perspective. The commission shall make visible and disseminate knowledge about the Sámi's experiences as well as submit proposals for measures. The assignment shall be final reported in December 2025.

Simultaneously, the Renmark Committee's work is ongoing, with a partial report expected in August. The committee has been tasked with analyzing the Sami people's right to hunting and fishing.

Statistics Sweden has also carried out a review of the Sami Parliament on behalf of the government and, based on those analyses, has also proposed measures.

All this is, of course, something that the Riksdag will have to handle later.

Mr. Speaker! When we debated minority issues last year, I said the following: "When one reads the report on minority issues, one realizes that the Riksdag will receive several cases on these issues on its table in the coming years. Hopefully, they are proposals that strengthen national minorities. - - - The need to be able to combine one's own language and one's own culture is important for us. It is not only important for us who live here and now; it is perhaps even more important for future generations that the language and culture are allowed to live on."

What needs to be done now is to take a holistic approach to minority policy moving forward. I look forward to being able to do that once all the investigations have been laid on the table of the Riksdag.

I move for approval of the proposal in the Committee on the Constitution's report 18.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Victoria Tiblom (SD)

Mr. Speaker! Today we are debating the Committee on the Constitution's report 18 Minority Issues, and I move for approval of reservation 1 regarding Jewish life in Sweden.

Do not go out with your kippah and hide your Star of David - such is the reality for many Jews in Sweden and especially in Malmö. In connection with the persecution of Jews during World War II, many Jews were given sanctuary in Sweden. Here they could live freely and without the risk of being persecuted. Today, almost 70 years after the end of World War II, the situation for Jews in Sweden is completely different.

In recent years, antisemitism in Sweden has taken various forms, including hate crimes, threats, and harassment, both online and offline. Some of this can be linked to the increased tension in the Middle East conflict and the Palestinian issue, which has led to polarization and increased tensions between different groups in Sweden.

We Sweden Democrats take the increasing antisemitism in Sweden seriously. In Malmö, a number of Jews have moved due to the hatred and the threats they face when they are open about their Jewish faith and culture. To facilitate and strengthen Jewish life in Sweden, measures should be implemented to strengthen the Jewish group's rights throughout the country. Since parts of the Jewish group are still persecuted and fall victim to crimes with hateful motives, further measures should be implemented to strengthen Jews' rights in Sweden. To achieve this, the government should review what opportunities exist to facilitate Jewish life in Sweden.

Right now, Eurovision is taking place in Malmö. In anticipation of this, the Israeli Security Council raised the travel warning regarding Malmö from two to three on the scale – from a corresponding potential threat to a moderate threat to Israelis. The Security Council also states in a statement that the city is a known center for anti-Israeli demonstrations and informs that there is a concern that Israelis may be exposed to various types of violence in Malmö during the event, Mr. Speaker. Israeli citizens are urged not to carry Israeli flags or display their identity in Malmö.

This is what is happening in Sweden in 2024 - citizens from another country are to consider whether they really should travel to Malmö. And that is understandable. If we do not succeed in creating a safe life for the Jews living in Sweden, there is even less chance that we will be able to guarantee safety for the Jews who come here. Measures are needed to strengthen Jews' rights in Sweden, and they are needed now - or rather: They should have been needed already yesterday.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Erik Ottoson (M)

Mr. Speaker! Sweden is a country with several national minorities. We are a country where one should be able to live one's life in peace, freedom and democracy regardless of who one is and where one comes from. One should be able to feel safe on Swedish streets. One should not have to be subjected to crime, threats or hate because of an ethnicity or a religious belief or for that matter any other reason.

That is why the situation we see emerging is extra upsetting. It represents a threat to Jews and Jewish life. It is a situation that is in no way unique to Sweden. As previous speakers have pointed out, the polarization is becoming stronger all over the world. It is a tendency that is recognizable to those who know their history.

The Moderates and this government are carrying out a purposeful work to address the problems that exist. But there is only one way to ensure that this comes to an end. It is about reconciliation, reduced polarization and respect for one another, Mr. Speaker - the basic respect for an ordinary human being regardless of who they are, what they think, who they believe in, what they believe in and what ethnicity they happen to have. Without that basic respect for one another, we will never get the existing problems in order, whether it concerns Jews and Jewish life or any other group.

The security situation prevailing for Swedish Jews today is under all criticism, and measures are being taken to rectify it. But it will never cease unless interpersonal respect is strengthened and polarization decreases.

All those who contribute to some form of affective polarization in the Swedish debate need to look at themselves in the mirror and reflect on what this means. One needs to see this in a broader context than that one stands on a certain side and that it makes one good. One needs to understand that all forms of affective polarization do not only reinforce one's own perception among those one succeeds in convincing – it also pushes away those whom one does not succeed in convincing and strengthens them in their perception. That is why an affective polarization is so harmful for the Swedish political debate and for the respect between different people in Sweden.

What is it that I want to come to with this? Well, the respect and protection for our national minorities, whether they be Jews, Sami, Swedish-Finns, Roma, Tornedalians or whoever they may be, is based on exactly this: acceptance and reduced affective polarization. We can put rights on paper, but if the rights are not upheld in everyday life and respect is conspicuously absent, they are not worth much.

That is why this is so terribly important, Mr. Speaker. It is a task that is greater than the politics in this chamber. It is about how we behave in our interpersonal relations and what culture we allow ourselves to have between one another in the Kingdom of Sweden. This is something that we all, not just the elected, bear a great and important responsibility for. Both members of the so-called majority population and members of minorities bear a responsibility to reduce affective polarization.

Mr. Speaker! Let me also say a few words about the Swedish indigenous people, the Sámi. Several situations that have arisen in recent years bring matters to a head regarding the indigenous people, the Sámi. The latest in the series consists of a series of problems and irregularities within the framework of the Sámi Parliament's activities, which appear in a report from the National Audit Office. These problems and irregularities must come to an end. We must get this in order. The Government is carrying out purposeful work to ensure that this also becomes the case. But even here, mutual respect and a joint effort are required to get the issues in order.

Among the matters that have emerged in the review are, among others, the view that certain parts of basic Swedish administrative principles cannot be reconciled with Sami culture. I do not share that view. I am completely convinced that Sami culture, just like all other cultures, benefits from legal certainty and clear rules, and from everyone knowing how these rules work and how they are to be followed.

The rights of the Sámi are important, and it is not just about different samebys and their rights but the entire Sámi group. Therefore, the increasing juridification of minorities' rights, especially indigenous peoples' rights in Sweden, is a political problem that must be addressed. The juridification is not based on wise political considerations aimed at creating mutual respect and peaceful coexistence, but rather on the idea that the law must handle the problems that politics has failed to deal with, and that the only bearer that the law can identify for this form of rights is the samebys.

This has, through the judgment issued by the Supreme Court regarding the right to hunting and fishing within the Girjas sameby, had the consequence that the sameby has been granted the right to lease out the hunting on state land above the cultivation limit. This means, in practice, if one takes it to its logical conclusion, that 90 percent of all Sámi overnight lost their opportunity to consider themselves as hunting right holders on that land, because the 90 percent who are not members of the sameby only have their right as Swedish citizens to seek the opportunity to hunt and fish in these lands.

This is, of course, a distortion even within the Sami group that needs to be taken into account and something that is in no way simple to handle at all. It is nothing that fosters mutual respect and a long-term wise balance between different interests in these areas of our country.

Mr. Speaker! Let me, finally, although I have exceeded my speaking time, I apologize for that, mention something about Älvdalskan.

Älvdalska is a language spoken in a very small part of Sweden. It is not spoken by any national minority, nor by a group that considers itself a national minority. It is, however, still a language and not a dialect. That is my opinion.

We shall endeavor to work so that Älvdalskan is successively given the opportunities to remain, develop, and flourish as needed so that that part of Swedish cultural heritage can be preserved.

Mr. Speaker! I move for approval of the committee's proposal in the Committee on the Constitution's report.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Gudrun Brunegård (KD)

Mr. Speaker! This motion report contains questions regarding Jewish life in Sweden, the truth commission on Roma, strengthened rights for Tornevians, Kvens and Lantalaiset, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Sami rights, language and culture, and a good deal of other things.

The goal of the policy for national minorities is to provide protection for them and strengthen their opportunities for influence, as well as to support the historical minority languages so that they are kept alive.

I want to start by highlighting the part concerning Jewish life in Sweden, a subject that is terribly relevant right now given the open antisemitism that has flared up recently.

When Jews in Sweden are threatened and harassed simply because they are Jews, that is an expression of antisemitism. When Jews are attributed certain characteristics and traits, that is evidence of antisemitism. When Swedish Jews collectively are made to bear the blame for Israel's warfare in Gaza, that is because of antisemitism.

When Jews are urged not to wear Jewish attributes, such as the Star of David or a kippah, in order not to attract negative attention, it is in order to protect themselves against antisemitism.

When Jewish institutions such as schools and synagogues need to have iron fences and security, it is because of antisemitism.

The government has allocated 20 million kronor in 2024 and 10 million per year for 2025 and 2026 to strengthen the work against racism and other xenophobia and discrimination. There is also an action plan at the EU level to counter racism and discrimination. It is based on three pillars:

To prevent and combat all forms of antisemitism.

To protect and promote Jewish life in the EU.

To promote the memory of and education and research on the Holocaust.

In line with the EU's action plan, work is underway in Sweden to supplement the national plan against racism.

Next week, we in the KU will adjust the report dealing with proposition 2023/24:93 A clearer provision on hate speech. The provisions in the Freedom of the Press Act and the Penal Code shall be clarified and expanded, so that denial of the Holocaust shall be criminalized as well as incitement to violence. Individuals in the protected groups shall receive protection and the right to compensation. Likewise, the work continues to raise knowledge about antisemitism in society and to increase research on antisemitism, as well as with increased efforts within the school system.

In January, the report A strong Jewish life for future generations. National strategy to strengthen Jewish life in Sweden 2025 - 2034 was presented. In it, both opportunities and obstacles for Jewish life and Yiddish in Sweden are identified. The widespread antisemitism is highlighted as an obstacle, along with the lack of safety and security surrounding Jewish institutions.

This is something that I myself witnessed when I visited a synagogue for a worship service a few months ago, while anti-Semitic demonstrations were taking place a few blocks away. We had agreed on a time so that those responsible for security would know that we were coming. There were various security measures and surveillance cameras so that any potential attackers could be seen from different angles and evacuated in time, and one of the worship attendees kept a constant eye on those moving in the area.

Some of the objectives for the national action plan are:

Jews in Sweden should be able to live openly, safely and securely.

There must be good opportunities to live a Jewish life and to pass on Jewish culture and Jewish traditions to children and young people.

There shall be strengthened knowledge, education and research on Jewish life and Jewish studies.

Jewish culture and Swedish-Jewish cultural heritage should be more visible in Swedish society.

Work with Yiddish shall be relevant and forward-looking.

It can be noted that much remains, given how, for example, the Jewish population in Malmö has shrunk in recent years. I have heard Jews seriously express that the only place where they can feel safe is in Israel, despite the threat that Hamas and other antisemitic groups pose there.

From that perspective, it was an important symbolic act that the government in January 2023 established a working group that transcends departmental areas to collaborate and conduct a dialogue on preventive measures and interventions that strengthen the conditions for Jewish life and that prevent and counteract antisemitism in Sweden. The Jewish Council, the Jewish Youth Association, and the Swedish Committee against Antisemitism are also included in the work. Together, they shall counteract antisemitism through educational initiatives, increase safety for Jews in Sweden, and highlight Jewish culture. What happened in Germany and in large parts of Europe during the last century must not be repeated.

A few weeks ago, the major art exhibition at Moderna Museet featuring Lotte Laserstein concluded. A shared life, the exhibition was called. Everyone I have heard who saw it was very deeply moved by both her life's fate and what she depicts in her art.

I got to know her when I was a teenager. During the 15 years that followed until she passed away, I heard her many times tell about her friends, whom she depicts in her most famous work, Evening over Potsdam, painted in the early 1930s.

That painting hung over the sofa where we used to sit and have coffee and talk. Lotte told that everyone she had depicted in the painting had read Mein Kampf. They knew what awaited them. The people in the painting radiate a fateful gravity. What would become of them? How would they manage? Where would they go to reach safety?

Friends were scattered across Europe. Some went to the USA. Lotte herself came to Sweden during the last month that the border was open for Jews. But after the war, she could state that her entire family had been wiped out. Her sister had survived in Germany but was a nervous wreck. Otherwise, it was only one cousin who had survived of her entire large family.

Let it not happen again for anything in the world! Let us fight against antisemitism with all our might!

Mr. Speaker! I did not use my entire allotted speaking time in the two previous debates. But I am now going to exceed my speaking time, and I apologize for this. I cannot leave the rostrum without saying a few words about Älvdalska as well. It is formally regarded as a dialect, but research shows that Älvdalska differs from Swedish as much as Icelandic does. This became apparent, in particular, when a member a few years ago read out a few sentences from an Älvdalsk saga in Älvdalska and was urged by the Speaker to stick to Swedish in the chamber.

More and more researchers from all over the world support the thesis that Älvdalska is a language, developed from an Old Norse language branch that diverged from Swedish as early as the 500s. Today, it is a couple of thousand people who speak Älvdalska. I myself know a few words that are common with Moramål and Orsamål, which I learned to understand with some help when I worked as a nurse in long-term care in Mora in the 1980s. Back then, I needed an interpreter to be able to speak with the elderly who had forgotten Swedish.

Älvdalska is even more distinctive than the mora dialect and the orsa dialect. In Älvdalen, great energy is invested in preserving and revitalizing the language. They have textbooks, games, songs, and summer courses in Älvdalska. One problem is that there is no room for another language among the minority languages, and the people of Älvdalen do not see themselves as an ethnic minority either. Therefore, a review of the current minority and language acts would be needed in order to enable legislation where Älvdalska could be recognized as a so-called regional language without necessarily receiving all the other things included in the minority legislation. I have no motion on this, however, but it must happen in another order.

With that, I move for approval of the committee's proposal in the report.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Malin Björk (C)

Mr. Speaker! I would like to begin by moving for approval of reservation 7 under point 6.

No person in Sweden shall be discriminated against or subjected to prejudice as a result of their origin. All people living in our country shall have the same opportunities for influence and participation in social life. Each one of us has the right to their language and their cultural identity. This constitutes the core of the minority policy that we have adopted here in the Riksdag.

Unfortunately, reality does not always look like this. Unfortunately, we continue to see how minorities are discriminated against. Most recently this week, we could read about this when Brå released the report Hate Crimes against Sámi. It is in parts frightening reading about how Sámi are subjected to hate, offensive expressions, and prejudices about what are Sámi character traits in many different environments and contexts, for example in schools, in workplaces and not least online. The report is a clear signal to us in politics that our work to protect minority groups' rights can never take a break. But we must at the same time keep in mind what Member Mirja Räihä touched upon earlier: Minorities are not a homogeneous group. We must adapt measures according to the needs of different minority groups.

Mr. Speaker! For 20 years now, we in Sweden have had a unified policy to strengthen our national minorities and to support our national minority languages. The goal of that policy is to provide these minorities with protection and to strengthen their opportunities for influence. At the same time, we shall ensure that our historical minority languages can be kept alive. The work on minority issues has, over the last 20 years, certainly moved forward, but there is still a great deal to be done to reach the goals that we have collectively adopted.

The responsibility for following up on how Sweden's minority policy is implemented in our municipalities lies with the County Administrative Board in Stockholm together with the Sami Parliament. These authorities shall provide education and information on minority issues, and they shall provide the support that municipalities and other authorities need. It is of course important that the minority policy is coordinated, but for it to have an impact in practice, it is absolutely central to involve civil society. Without the non-profit organizations that gather the minorities and the work that these associations do, there is a risk that it will not amount to much.

Mr. Speaker! I grew up myself with a mother who immigrated from Finland and where the Finnish-speaking minority belonged – an identity that she, to the highest degree, took with her and preserved after she met my father and settled in Sweden. Many were the weekends during my upbringing that were spent at various arrangements organized by FRIS, Finlandssvenskarnas riksförbund i Sverige, and where mother was deeply involved. Perhaps I did not always think as a 13-year-old that Finnish-Swedish folk music events were the most fun thing there was on a Saturday. But I have, in any case, experienced what important role this organization plays for Finnish-Swedes settled in different parts of the country and for the preservation of their culture.

For me, as for the Center Party, it is obvious to emphasize the importance of giving civil society a decisive role in caring for, safeguarding, and developing the national minorities. Therefore, it is of great importance that organizations within civil society that gather our national minorities are given practical and economic conditions to conduct a good operation - this is so that minority policy can be implemented in practice.

Mr. Speaker! At this time last year, we in the KU made a joint trip after receiving a pleasant invitation from Älvdalen. The people of Älvdalen wanted to create an understanding among us in the KU of what Älvdalska means to them by offering us a deep dive into this language. Part of this involved explaining to us how Älvdalska is constructed, both grammatically and phonetically, to make us understand that Älvdalska is precisely a language, not a dialect. A number of language experts who have examined Älvdalska and its structure also maintain that it is a language.

To guarantee a group's linguistic rights is a fundamental human right anchored in the UN Convention on Human Rights. Today, we in Sweden have recognized five minority languages: Sami, Meänkieli, Finnish, Yiddish, and Romani. In contrast to those who belong to these language groups, children with Älvdalska as a mother tongue do not have the right to school education either in or on Älvdalska. Something that is obviously an important part of making a language live on is that the younger generation learns and actually speaks the language.

The Center Party considers it a historical mistake if Älvdalskan, Sweden's oldest preserved language, were to die out, just as several others in KU have expressed here in this chamber. I want to send a greeting to our friends in Älvdalen: We have not forgotten your hospitality, nor the insights you gave us regarding the importance of preserving Älvdalskan. Even though we do not have a motion on this today, we in the Center Party will continue to propose that Älvdalskan be recognized as a minority or regional language.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Jan Riise (MP)

Mr. Speaker! I agree with the previous speaker's joy, gratitude, and interest in Älvdalska as a regional language. We have not forgotten this, just as Malin Björk just said, but we will return to the matter.

Now I shall speak about other minorities. Jews, Roma, Sámi, Swedish-speaking Finns and Tornevians are recognized as national minorities in Sweden and therefore have special rights regarding language, culture and influence. Together they perhaps constitute a million people, one-tenth of the population.

We in Sweden are obliged to preserve, protect and develop the specific rights belonging to these minorities. This means, among other things, that discrimination of persons belonging to a national minority is prohibited and that the state must take measures to achieve equality between the majority population and the minorities. As a country, we have a responsibility to ensure minorities the right to information, influence and participation as well as their opportunity to preserve and develop their culture, their religion, their language, their traditions and their cultural heritage.

Throughout history, national minorities have been subjected to extensive abuses and discrimination. This history obliges us to something else. It is therefore of the utmost importance to assure Jews, Roma, Sámi, Sweden-Finns and Tornevians their right to language, culture and influence.

The Green Party stands up for the rights of national minorities. During our time in government, we pushed for a higher ambition in minority policy and we continue to do so. We have, among other things, made a major investment in the languages and culture of national minorities with new language centers and strengthened minority libraries. We have presented a historic consultation procedure for the Sámi people and established truth commissions for the indigenous people Sámi and the national minorities Tornedalians as well as Kvens and Lantalaiset. We have strengthened the Jewish Museum and allocated funds for Romani inclusion. We got some things done, but there is much left to do.

Mr. Speaker! The Jewish minority in Sweden is in an increasingly worse situation from a security perspective. During its time in government, the Miljöpartiet worked actively to increase the security for Jewish congregations in Sweden. The criminal protection against hate propaganda on racist grounds is strong in Sweden, but there is reason to review the need for reinforcements.

The visibility of Yiddish and Yiddish culture is, in some cases, more complex than is the case for other minority languages. This is because, among many people with a Jewish background, there is a concern for their own safety that can counteract the willingness to openly display their Jewish identity – this is something many of my colleagues here have also spoken about. It is therefore important to carry out initiatives to promote and make visible Yiddish as a national minority language as well as to make Jewish cultural life visible. A special investigator has been tasked with submitting proposals for a national strategy for strengthening Jewish life in Sweden, and such a proposal has also been submitted to the government. We want to emphasize the importance of the conclusions from this investigation being taken into account.

Mr. Speaker! Roma have for a long time been subjected to extensive discrimination. At times they have been forbidden from entering Sweden, been forcibly sterilized, or denied permanent housing. Even today, Roma are subjected to discrimination and anti-Gypsyism, which causes some Roma to hide their Roma identity and their language due to prejudices and negative attitudes, including in contact with various public activities.

The actions of Swedish majority society towards Roma are part of the exclusion that Roma have also been subjected to in the rest of Europe. The discrimination and persecution that have affected the Roma minority have, among other things, led to a lack of documentation of Roma history in, for example, museums and archives. Roma must be given a greater opportunity to be involved in issues concerning them, not least within education and social care. Access to preschool and elderly care in the mother tongue is one such example. The number of trained mother-tongue teachers, however, varies around Sweden, and the work to secure access to language teachers must continue.

Mr. Speaker! Antisemitism, anti-Ziganism, and racism still exist in our societies and take on new expressions. Hatred against Jews is found in our history, in far-right groups, in parts of the extreme left, and in Islamist environments. We see antisemitism among adults and children who have moved to Sweden from countries where Jew-hatred characterizes school education and state propaganda. Antisemitic messages are found among those who attacked the US Congress in Washington and in groups that spread conspiracy theories about vaccinations and the covid-19 pandemic, not least on social media. Jews and Jewish congregations and organizations are subjected to threats and hate crimes, even in Sweden.

Mr. Speaker! Today, the Sámi are the only ethnic group in Sweden that has been formally recognized as an indigenous people.

It is well established that Tornedalians, Kvens, and Lantalaiset have lived in Sweden for a very long time. The Swedish Tornedalian Federation has requested that the government recognize Tornedalians, Kvens, and Lantalaiset as indigenous peoples according to Article 1 of ILO Convention 169. Such a status would mean an international law and formal recognition and contribute to preserving and developing the language, identity, and culture. The government should therefore appoint an inquiry to take a position on whether these groups should be granted status as indigenous peoples. It would strengthen and make visible both the Tornedalians' culture and history as well as meänkieli. There are lessons to be drawn from other countries where work with truth and reconciliation processes between the state and minorities or indigenous peoples has progressed further.

Mr. Speaker! The policy of silence towards the Sami people has reasonably reached its end. The relations between the state and the indigenous people, the Sami, can best be described as an open wound, both historically and in our contemporary time. The structural racism and discrimination that the Sami people have been subjected to throughout history still have consequences today.

But something is happening. The Sámi perspectives and issues are increasing in visibility. Now a broader political approach is needed. We have received a consultation order and a Girjas judgment, a Nordic Sámi convention is under negotiation and we have Sámi film on Netflix. But we have not implemented the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples from 2007, despite repeated pushes and reminders.

The lack of indigenous policy is actually one of the areas of rights where Sweden faces the most international criticism. Year after year, Sweden is criticized by various UN bodies and by the Council of Europe for missing reforms. Countries that are comparable in other respects - Norway, Canada, New Zealand and Australia - have addressed their history and their issues. Sweden is now an exception.

Miljöpartiet stands up for Sami rights and for a living Sami community life. During the past parliamentary term, we have pushed for a higher ambition in politics for the Sami people and continue to do so.

Miljöpartiet has a long series of reservations in the report. Since my committee colleague Jessica Wetterling is ill and we have a couple of reservations together with Vänsterpartiet, I would like to move for approval of reservations 2 and 5.

In this speech, Jacob Risberg (MP) agreed.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Vasiliki Tsouplaki (V)

Mr. Speaker! I come here with bated breath. As the previous speaker mentioned, our representative in the Committee on the Constitution is absent, so I will do my best to briefly report on the Left Party's policy regarding minority issues. I want to start by moving for approval of reservation number 13.

Vänsterpartiet has for a long time pursued issues aimed at strengthening Sami rights. I intend to focus on that part. We have, for example, regularly submitted motions regarding the ratification of the ILO convention on indigenous peoples. Sweden has had problems with upholding the conventions we have promised to follow and has for a long time discriminated against the Sami group.

Minority issues

Reservation 12 concerns the Sami languages, Mr. Speaker. The situation for the Sami languages is very serious. Despite revitalization during the recent decades, the five Sami languages are still classified as endangered languages. Here we need to make efforts. For example, the resource libraries are an important resource, but they are underfunded. We see that major efforts need to be made in this area.

Centuries of assimilation policy have meant that many Sámi have never or only insufficiently learned their own language. Here, the Swedish state has a responsibility. Previously, Sámi children were forbidden from using the Sámi languages in school, and we can still see the consequences in subsequent generations. When many Sámi stopped speaking their language, they also found it difficult to pass it on to their children. Therefore, we need to ensure that we have teacher training so that we can provide mother-tongue education in an adequate way in the future. Increased resources are also needed to be able to carry out the measures that we have promised. This includes, among other things, increased measures so that the Sametinget can carry out this policy.

Vänsterpartiet also proposes measures to review a separate Sami language act so that we can distinguish the parts.

I believe I will stop there, Mr. Speaker. We will return to the rest of my speech later.

The deliberation was hereby concluded.

(A decision was to be taken on 15 May.)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)