Response to interpellation 2022/23:298 on state support for emergency services
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
M considers that rescue services are a core municipal task and a fundamental municipal function where the municipalities are responsible for planning and organizing 1 2. M argues that it is a matter of political priorities 2 and that the state should not step in to rescue individual fire stations 3. M emphasizes that the state is already investing almost 1 billion kronor in civil defense 4, that the municipalities receive higher general state grants 4 and that the government is preparing a basis to increase the capacity in the rescue services 4 2. S argues that they have invested more than twice as much as the government on general appropriations to the municipalities 5.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Adrian Magnusson, for the interpellation!
Adrian Magnusson has asked me if I and the government still intend not to provide any financial support to ensure that the country's emergency services can maintain their current level of readiness and, if the answer is yes, if there is any occasion when financial support could become relevant.
It is of great importance that Sweden has a good preparedness and the ability to carry out effective rescue operations in the event of fires and other accidents.
According to the Act (2003:778) on Protection against Accidents, it is the municipalities that are responsible for accident prevention activities and rescue services within their areas. This means that it is the municipalities' responsibility to plan and organize rescue services so that rescue operations can be initiated within an acceptable time and carried out in an effective manner.
On 1 January 2021, a number of amendments to the Act on Protection Against Accidents entered into force. The legislative changes fundamentally aim to enable the municipalities, in cooperation, to carry out rapid and effective rescue operations throughout the country.
Through the legislative changes, the municipalities have in several ways developed their ability to lead and carry out extensive rescue operations. Since 2021, the municipalities have been allocated 45 million kronor per year for the new task of having a permanent function for the overall management of the rescue service. Today, all municipalities have access to such a function. The municipalities have also formed larger cooperation organizations.
The state supports the municipalities in various ways during extensive rescue operations. One example of this is that the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) has been allocated funds to assist the municipalities with reinforcement resources. In 2019, MSB was allocated 65 million kronor, and since 2020, the agency has been allocated 15 million kronor annually. MSB has at its disposal reinforcement resources for, among other things, forest fires, flooding, oil spills, and search and rescue. The support contributes to strengthening the rescue services' capacity and preparedness.
A good emergency service capability throughout the country is of great importance. The Government is following the developments closely. It is, however, important to remember that emergency services is one of the municipalities' core tasks. It is essential that the municipalities take the measures required to ensure an effective readiness for emergency services.
Adrian Magnusson (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister Bohlin, for the answer! It is good that we here in the chamber today have a debate on the rescue services. We live in uncertain times. And it is important that we do not only talk about military buildup in light of that, but also about civil preparedness - that we do not only talk about corvettes, main battle tanks and machine guns, but also about fire trucks, powder extinguishers and drainage pumps.
The background to this interpellation is that the rescue services are under threat in my home regions. More specifically, it concerns two fire stations - in Vollsjö and in Lövestad. It is committed, knowledgeable, and experienced firefighters whose lives now risk being overturned when these fire stations are closed down. Parts of the rural areas in Skåne risk being left completely without a functioning rescue service.
This runs counter to the government's stated will to strengthen civil preparedness. It is rather a dismantling and creation of insecurity. Those who come to the rescue in, for example, traffic accidents, fires, and floods are the rescue services. They are men and women who, either full-time or as needed in addition to their other occupations, put their lives and their safety at risk to help people in some kind of distress.
Madam Speaker! I do not need to inform the Chamber or the Minister about the steel bath that many of the country's municipalities are currently undergoing or will undergo. The savings requirements are going through the municipalities like an iron broom sweeping through the municipal administrations, into the classrooms, through the elderly care homes, and around the preschool departments. There are few things that are spared from the economically tough times and from the government's reluctance to inject more money into the municipalities. This also applies in my constituency in southern Skåne.
Madam Speaker! It was actually with some surprise that I received the answer from the Minister - I must confess. There is not a single syllable about more money for the municipalities to strengthen civil preparedness. There is not a single designated krona. Instead, there are references to historical investments by the previous Social Democratic government, the government that the right always accused of doing too little and too late. But from this government, it is not a krona - this I actually did not believe. No money came in the spring budget bill either. But civil preparedness was perhaps forgotten.
The Minister emphasizes in his response that it is a fundamental municipal task to ensure that there is a functioning rescue service. That response may cause some alarm. For now, many municipal councilors, both from the political right and from the political left, have actually saved what they can on schools, on elderly care, and on preschools. Now they are also forced to save on the rescue services.
My question then is: Does the Minister mean that the welfare should be dismantled completely so that fire stations in the country can be saved? Is that really the Minister's message to the country's municipalities?
As a social democrat, I can have some kind of understanding on an ideological level that the most right-conservative government in modern times does not want to shell out more money to maintain the welfare system. I naturally think it is completely wrong policy, and I distance myself from it. But I can still have understanding for it on an ideological level.
When the alarm sounds that even the rescue services are under threat, one imagines that a right-conservative government would say stop, but no, that is what one got. Or does the limit only come when all schools, nursing homes, and preschools have been cut to unrecognizability? Is it really the government's message to the municipalities that every school, every preschool, and every nursing home shall undergo major cuts so that the rescue services can be spared?
Statsrådet Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M)
Madam Speaker! I would have welcomed it if this debate and discussion could have been characterized by a greater measure of objectivity. I have until now perceived that the area concerning Sweden's total defense has been spared from this type of general outbursts and attempts to discredit the government in various contexts.
Here is the situation. The interpellor asserts that the government is not investing another krona in civil defense. The government allocates 1 billion, 915 million to be exact, to civil defense in the budget bill for 2023. It is thus almost 1 billion more than the path that was established in the total defense decision of 2020.
As far as I know, the Social Democrats have not allocated more funds in their budget motion for 2023 than the government does in the budget bill for 2023, so the claim that not a single krona more would be invested in civil defense simply does not hold up against reality.
The question concerned the municipal rescue services. The municipal rescue services are municipal, and as far as I am aware, there is no other opinion in this chamber. The Government is allocating more funds than ever in general state grants in this area, that is to say, the municipalities have more money from the state to move with today than before. We are coming from a time when the municipalities had historical surpluses, but we are heading towards tougher times. It is absolutely true.
This is naturally a question where the municipalities must also perform a tough prioritization work. But as far as I know, no extra funds have been added in any of the opposition parties' budgets for this purpose. Let us keep apart what is truth and what is rhetorical fiction in a speaker's chair in the Swedish Riksdag.
It is very important that we maintain the capacity in the rescue services. I hope and believe we agree on that. Do we face challenges in this area? Absolutely. Does the government see this problem? Absolutely. We have received MSB's basis, which was reported on March 1. We are preparing it in the Government Offices.
I am fully convinced that the Member of Parliament understands, just like everyone else, that I cannot anticipate the work being carried out ahead of the budget bill for 2024. That is to say, when we announce any budget investments for 2024, we do so in accordance with the usual routine for this, just as the Social Democrats and other parties that submit budget motions here in the Swedish Riksdag return and announce which priorities they are making ahead of 2024.
With this said, the government has already at the beginning of this year stated that precisely with the experience from Ukraine, we need to move forward on a fast track to review the conditions for activating civil service for the municipal rescue services sector as a way to provide capacity and resources to the rescue services in the event of high alert. But fundamentally, the rescue services are a municipal responsibility. The municipalities are responsible for financing it, and the state provides general state grants that are higher than before. This is, of course, a responsibility that the municipal politicians must try to take.
Adrian Magnusson (S)
Madam Speaker! The Minister would like to speak here today about general government grants. I am happy to take that discussion, because the Social Democrats provided twice as much as this government has in general government grants to the municipalities. To say that we have not provided more money to the municipalities is also some kind of fiction, to use the Minister's words.
Right now, the savings are hitting the municipalities so hard that they even have to cut back on the rescue services. One might think, Mr. Speaker, that this should ring alarm bells in Rosenbad. But it clearly does not; instead, they point back at the municipalities and say that they have to solve this. Then the signal is: Cut as much as you can on the school, on elderly care, on preschool, and on all other municipal sectors. Then you can start cutting in the rescue services. But the municipalities are already there. The municipalities are already being forced to make savings now. One might then think that the government should hear the signals and ensure that more money is allocated to the municipalities in the spring budget proposal, but they do not. It sends a clear signal about how the government views the municipal sector and on welfare.
The Minister himself points out that there are more and more increased burdens on the rescue services. He mentioned here the expanded civil duty for the municipal rescue services. That is a very good proposal, I believe. It strengthens the rescue services' role in the civil preparedness. But it requires that financial means also be provided for it, and I cannot, in any case, discern any such commitment in the answer to the interpellation.
If we are to talk about civil preparedness in earnest, it is not enough with fine words and good press releases or attending networking events, it also requires action, financial means and work.
Here I see a major concern at home, Mr. Speaker, where the municipalities and Sydöstra Skånes räddningstjänstförbund in this case are forced to step in and save on the rescue services, because the municipalities do not have any more money to set aside for the rescue services. In that case, I think that a government, which I actually believe prioritizes civil preparedness, should be prepared to come forward with larger appropriations to the municipalities. One could come forward with designated appropriations to the country's rescue services specifically so that they can maintain the current level of preparedness, but that is not done.
Mr. Speaker! I am convinced that people living in Vollsjö and Lövestad, in the typical Scanian countryside, should have the same right to safety as people living in my hometown Ystad, in Stockholm, in Kalmar, in Kiruna, or wherever it may be. That requires feeling safe and knowing that if one's house catches fire, for example, the fire brigade will come. If a traffic accident were to occur, one should know that the fire brigade is nearby. But if we dismantle the civil preparedness because the government is not prepared to meet the municipalities' needs, I believe we are in a bad position.
Statsrådet Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M)
Mr. Speaker! The problem is that the interpellator describes a situation that is partly fictitious, as he tries to make it applicable that the party he represents here in the Swedish Riksdag would in some way have any other money than what the government allocates in the area. The Social Democrats do not invest more than the government on civil defense. The government has raised the bar through an investment of 950 million over the path that was established in the defense decision in 2020.
It's like apples and pears are being mixed. Sometimes it is a discussion about the general state grants to the municipalities and sometimes about the appropriation for civil defense. And when it comes to the appropriation for civil defense, we are very clear that the capacity in civil defense must increase. There is a problem in that one cannot give general state grants to, for example, municipal associations. Most rescue services are organized as municipal associations.
I have not seen, Mr. Speaker, a proposal where the Social Democrats earmark more money for municipal rescue services in any form. But let us have that discussion when you have such a proposal in place.
Our message is clear: We want to increase capacity broadly within the municipal rescue services in civil defense. We are currently preparing the basis that MSB has submitted to the Government Offices as of March 1. I naturally cannot account for any future investments here in an interpellation debate, as there is a format for how future budget investments are reported when it comes to the work on the budget for 2024.
Furthermore, it must be noted that what the state has a responsibility for, above all else in this area, is that there are resources for extraordinary events and that the work towards high preparedness can continue to be carried out. The fundamental responsibility here lies with the municipalities. We have had a record influx and record results in municipalities and regions in recent years.
Even though we have difficult times ahead, this is about political priorities, and I would like to assert that emergency services are a fundamental function in a municipality. I cannot make priorities for individual municipalities in that regard. But I would like to meet the municipal politician who does not think that these are central and prioritized issues.
Let me say that MSB has a pool of national resources available for use in precisely extraordinary events, for example in the case of forest fires, floods, oil spills, etc. This is therefore an area where we invest resources and where we ensure that these resources are available. If the interpellor has a different opinion, namely that all rescue services should be state-run, he is welcome to put forward this point so that we can discuss it. But I do not perceive that there is any such broad political consensus in Sweden's Riksdag.
Adrian Magnusson (S)
Mr. Speaker! I want to point out once again to everyone here in the chamber and to everyone listening that we invested more than twice as much as the government in general grants to the municipalities, which the municipalities can then send out to the municipal associations that manage the rescue services. It is entirely possible to do.
The Minister here says once again that the rescue service is a fundamental function in a municipality. As I pointed out earlier, there are already today municipal federations that are forced to cut in the rescue service. In some way, it points to the fact that one has then gone through the rest of the municipal sector. Then the Minister thinks, therefore, that one should cut further in welfare to finance the rescue service. That is how I interpret the message to the municipal councilors out in the country.
Then I can take Vollsjö and Lövestad again as examples. In Vollsjö, 73.68 percent of the electorate voted for one of the right-wing parties in the parliamentary election in the autumn. In Lövestad, it was 68.62 percent who did so. It is a crushing majority that has chosen to cast their vote for one of the three parties that sit in the government or for the party that governs the government. The message then is: In your municipality, one should cut as much as possible in welfare and furthermore, if one must as in this case, shut down the fire station.
I think this is a regrettable announcement to give to the country's municipalities and especially to the inhabitants in these localities.
Statsrådet Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M)
Mr. Speaker! We are all eager to create good conditions for the rescue services across the country. We are all eager to create good conditions for the additional missions that exist for the rescue services during high alert. These issues are currently being prepared in the Government Offices.
Seventhly and finally, we have an arrangement where the fundamental responsibility for the rescue services is municipal. What each municipality does with its rescue service is not governed by a decree from the government, but rather lies within the framework of municipal self-government. It is, therefore, a political prioritization.
What we have to do here and now is to ensure that the collective capability in civil defense is strengthened. The rescue services have a completely instrumental part.
To imagine an arrangement where the state steps in and, as the interpellator seems to request, saves individual fire stations would be a rather unorthodox solution to see the whole of this. And I do not perceive, even if the interpellator wants to make it sound this way, that the Social Democrats fundamentally have any other view on this issue or have any other proposal to step in and save individual fire stations.
We need to ensure that the capacity in civil defense increases. This is done by the government investing broadly in civil defense - as I mentioned, almost 1 billion more for 2023 than the trajectory established in the defense decision from 2020. And we will continue with this work to strengthen civil defense.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.