Response to interpellation 2022/23:54 on the future of popular education
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns the future of adult education and its funding. L emphasizes the importance of adult education for personal development 1 and wants to reform the support through an inquiry on governance and monitoring to ensure efficiency 1. L proposes a higher funding level than previous proposals 1 and argues that control is necessary to counter fraud and ensure that tax money is used correctly 2 3. L argues that the current permanent grants are higher than those of the previous Social Democratic government 4. S considers adult education to be fantastic for the individual and society 5 and wants to preserve its freedom and voluntariness 5. S wants to invest an additional 200 million kronor 6 and criticizes reduced grants 7 as well as cuts to vocational places 8 9. S argues that folk high schools are unique tools for getting people back into the labor market 10. S questions whether more bureaucracy is the best way to increase efficiency 11.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Speakers (13)
Utbildningsministern Mats Persson (L)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, honorable members, for this interpellation!
Linus Sköld has asked me if I will act to abolish the Folkbildningsrådet, how I in that case will act to ensure that folk education also in the future is free and voluntary, what I will do to streamline folk education, and if I will act to continue reducing the state's support for folk education.
Initially, I want to clarify that popular education is important to give everyone the opportunity, together with others, to gain increased knowledge and education for personal development and participation in society.
The Government has stated in the budget bill for 2023 that the system for support to the folk education sector shall be reformed. The previous government already commissioned an inquiry into the governance and follow-up of folk education. The inquiry is currently conducting a review of the model for the distribution of state grants to folk education to ensure that folk education is governed effectively. The inquiry's mandate also includes investigating how follow-up, control, and auditing of folk education are ensured and reviewing the purposes and goals of folk education (dir. 2022:75). The mandate shall be final reported by February 19, 2024, at the latest (The inquiry on governance and follow-up of folk education - choices for the future [U 2022:01]). This inquiry is therefore ongoing.
Linus Sköld has highlighted in his question that folk high schools and study associations are content-free and voluntary for the participants. The terms "free" and "voluntary" were coined as early as by the folk education inquiry in 1944 and have been guiding for folk education since then, regardless of whether the state subsidy at the time was distributed by an agency or, as today, through a non-profit association. However, how the state subsidy is used can never be free and voluntary. Relevant regulations must be followed.
Linus Sköld has also asked me what I will do to streamline adult education. The Swedish National Audit Office, in its audit report on the state grant to the study associations (RiR 2022:20), has identified a number of areas that need to be developed to ensure follow-up and control of the state grant. The Swedish National Audit Office makes two recommendations to the government; firstly, that the Folkbildningsrådet's agency role in the control and follow-up of the state grant is clarified and strengthened, and secondly, that the government ensures that the council's reporting covers more detailed information in a number of areas.
The Government will return with its assessment of the National Audit Office's recommendations in a communication to the Riksdag. The Government is currently analyzing the need for measures within the current management model to develop more transparent governance and a more predictable system for control, including the reporting requirements for the Folkbildningsrådet.
Finally, Linus Sköld has asked me if I will act to continue reducing the state's support for folkbildningen. During the covid-19 pandemic, temporary extra funds were added to folkhögskolan in installments, and these funds will cease, as previously announced, at the end of 2022. Temporary funds have also previously been added to studieförbunden for initiatives aimed at, among others, parents on parental leave and foreign-born women, and these funds will also cease as previously announced at the end of 2022.
In the budget bill for 2023, the government proposes an extension of the folk education initiative Svenska från dag ett. The government proposes in the budget that approximately 4.6 billion kronor be allocated to folk education. Compared to the level that the previous government announced for 2023 in the budget bill 2022, the government's proposal for the appropriation level is higher.
In conclusion, I want to emphasize that folkbildning is an important force for Sweden and that the work of folk high schools and study associations is significant. Pending the proposals from the ongoing investigation, I will follow the measures that the Folkbildningsrådet and the study associations take and plan to take based on the Riksrevisionen's audit report. I do not rule out today further measures within the framework of the current model to develop the governance and control of the state grant to folkbildning.
Linus Sköld (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the opportunity to debate the future of popular education!
Folkbildningen is fantastic. The Minister called it significant, but I would say it is fantastic. It enables people to educate themselves, grow, and develop. It does good for the individual, who gains knowledge, self-confidence, and social interaction. It does good for society by uniting people, clashing opinions against each other, and building communities and cohesion. An educated population - folkbildning - has been an indispensable part of the construction of our democracy.
Folkbildningen has two clear branches.
One is the folk high schools, whose activities allow people to educate themselves together in learning processes that include social interaction, cooperation, discussion, and reflection. This is a good foundation for learning. Regardless of background or educational level, there is a place in the folk high school. The folk high schools provide a second chance for those whom the regular school has failed and who therefore lack passing grades from primary school or upper secondary school. They also provide access to important and high-quality cultural and creative courses.
The second branch, Madam Speaker, is the idea-driven and the non-profit study associations. With the study circle as the primary method, they provide an opportunity for everyone to educate themselves, grow, develop and learn on their own terms – always voluntarily and always together with others.
Popular education strengthens community spirit and enables life journeys both for those who have narrow interests and for those who want to educate themselves more generally, and both for those who already have an education and for those who lack such. All popular education shall be free in content and voluntary for the participants.
The Folkbildningsrådet is a non-profit organization that has a governmental task to distribute and monitor the state's support for folk education. The actors in folk education thus have the state's trust to distribute the state grant themselves. This is a construction that has been introduced to establish a formal and principled boundary between the state and folk education and to, so to speak, prevent politics from governing what content people's educational journeys should have.
It means, as Mats Persson pointed out in his response, not that funds can be used for anything or left to anyone. The state has therefore established a clear purpose for the state's support for folkbildning, which the funds must, of course, be used to fulfill. This hardly needs to be said, but I say it anyway, so that the minister does not have to clarify it: Obviously, everyone who carries out state-funded activities must stand up for the ideals of democracy.
Madam Speaker! It appears from the Tidö Agreement that Mats Persson, pending Christer Nylander's ongoing investigation on folkbildningen, shall take further measures to reform the support for folkbildningen. It also appears that one of the measures that Mats Persson shall consider while the investigation is ongoing is to abolish the Folkbildningsrådet.
In my interpellation, I asked the minister if he intends to act to abolish the Folkbildningsrådet and how, in that case—if he intends to do so—he will secure the continued content-related freedom of folk education. Mats Persson answered by saying roughly: It has worked before.
With all due respect, Madam Speaker: That was not what I asked. I believe that both I and all the millions of people who are affected by how the funds are distributed deserve an answer to the relatively simple question: Will Mats Persson abolish the Folkbildningsrådet? And if so, how will he ensure that folk education continues to be free and voluntary?
Lawen Redar (S)
Madam Speaker! Stockholm has a cultural center, a meeting place, that has outshone all others. No other activity has provided a venue like it, created a stage, and collaborated with everything from individual associations to organizations, authors, art and culture enthusiasts, musicians, researchers, economists, political scientists, media, and opposition leaders from distant countries.
The former student ombudsman Göran Eriksson, together with his predecessor Kurt Stern, built a program activity that was the absolute best in this city.
People filled stages and halls. Every interesting book that was released received a seminar, as did every political issue that burned. In the best years, there could be up to 1,000 arrangements per year where the study ombudsmen were in charge and in the hosting.
It was at one of these events, when one squeezed in with half of Stockholm in the Z-room at Sveavägen 41, that I got to know Sweden's former Minister for Culture, Bengt Göransson. He was a frequent participant and introduced me to folkbildning and to ABF, Arbetarnas Bildningsförbund. So many meetings were made possible at this location, and I attended so many study circles there. It laid the foundation for my cultural and political education.
It is not actually strange that ABF, during the years with the study ombudsman Göran Eriksson, received such acclaim among the people of Stockholm. Relevance and focus in the lecture activities, in combination with an enormous literary and political network of contacts across the entire world, ensured that the foremost arrived at ABF.
The tradition seems to be embedded in the walls. Already next week, the people of Stockholm will be standing and crowding in Katasalen as representatives for the Nobel Peace Prize winners from Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine take the stage for a conversation on democracy and peace in our time.
Madam Speaker! It has been a long time since we in the political and media debate have spoken in this way about popular education: about the meeting place, the culture, the education and lifelong learning, about the interest, the curiosity and the opportunity to take part in the great in the very small.
Discovered economic irregularities and fraud, a resource allocation principle that has created a hunt for volumes instead of qualitative activities and, above all, an ideological and long-term effort to sow doubt about the democratic value of folkbildning, mean that the right-wing government risks taking measures that limit the activities of folkbildning instead of countering economic fraud.
With the same arguments, in parts of the country, parts of or all support for folk education at the municipal and regional level has been withdrawn. I was therefore the first to welcome Education Minister Mats Persson's statement that no cuts would be made to folk education.
But the reality is that the resources for folkbildning go from just over 4.8 billion for 2022 to just over 4.3 billion during 2023 and 2024. The statement was therefore not correct.
We Social Democrats want to invest an additional 200 million in folkbildning to promote folk high school places in the upcoming recession and support the study associations in their important democracy and culture work. We also look forward to the folkbildning inquiry's conclusions to promote better control of the state grant.
When one now enters into a cooperation with the Sweden Democrats, who actively and ideologically counteract popular education, my question to the Minister is whether this will leave an impression on the national popular education policy. What will the upcoming budgets look like?
Gunilla Svantorp (S)
Madam Speaker! I am one of those people who has lived in folk education almost my entire life. I have had the privilege of being the chairman of one of the large study associations here in Värmland for two terms. It was a fantastic journey, and I truly made an effort to be out a lot in the activities and meet all those people that Lawen Redar just spoke about – those who are passionate about learning new things and who meet people they otherwise would not meet.
That is the very fine thing about folk education: When you participate in a study circle or attend a cultural activity or other folk education activity, you meet people whom you otherwise would not meet in everyday life. Then you gain new knowledge, insights, and understanding.
I have also had the privilege of serving as chairman of Konstfrämjandet in Värmland, which is also a part of folkbildningen. There I learned an enormous amount by actually not being an artist myself. I was able to ask those questions that are so important to be able to ask. I have been both a participant and a circle leader.
One of the people who has meant the most to me is Gösta Karlsson, who was the principal at Kyrkerud back home in Årjäng. It is one of the country's fine folk high schools. He was also a party comrade and led countless study circles that we had in the party at home. He made us think one more time.
There are so many Gösta Karlssons in our country who right now might feel depressed in their shoes - perhaps especially by the right-wing parties who go on about how all of folkbildningen is just nonsense and cheating. Cheating has obviously been uncovered, but one is also trying to do something about it, because folkbildningen is so much more. One million people participate in it every year. One should not disparage folkbildningen but must instead hold onto what works very well. There are cultural programs that over four million people participate in every year. I think that is fantastic.
I also want to take the opportunity to mention perhaps the very greatest: If anyone is to be called a spokesperson for popular education, it is Gösta Vestlund, who passed away this year. All of us who read the newspaper Folkhögskolan could rejoice until he was well over 100 years old that he wrote columns.
Gösta Vestlund was a person who was passionate about the conversation one has when meeting people whom one otherwise would not meet. I want to share a quote. Vestlund said: "An educated person is a person who never deliberately offends another person." He meant that as a living human being, one has the right to have a value. He believed in humanity. For those of us who have lived in folkbildningen for many years, he is a role model.
Like many others here, I am also very worried about the government's cooperation with the Sweden Democrats, who obviously want to cut millions of kronor from the state budget for public education. We see in the areas where they are involved and governing that they have actually already made cuts. They have clearly shown what they want. To what extent is the minister prepared to stand up to the Sweden Democrats?
Isak From (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Linus Sköld, for a very important interpellation! Thank you, Mats Persson, and congratulations on a very important assignment!
When I hear the answer to Linus Sköld, I can think that it is relatively good given the circumstances. If one looks at the circumstances regarding the cooperation with Sverigedemokraterna, it could be much worse. Now, this can still become better. My question to Mats Persson stems from the important role of the folk high schools.
A general course is perhaps the single best tool and that which gives the best results when it comes to getting people back into society. What we see - especially in small municipalities without their own upper secondary schools in northern Sweden, where I come from - is that an ever higher proportion of young people are staying at home. There, the folk high schools have a completely unique role and a very good result. They can actually get people back into society, and that is the basis for then getting them back into the labor market. These young people stand very far away from it, regardless of original nationality or culture. In many groups, there are young people who end up on the outside, and then the folk high schools are completely unique.
If Sweden enters a recession where more people may need the important mission of the folk high schools, then the government's new budget becomes counterproductive. In that case, the folk high schools and especially their general courses, but also the vocational courses, are needed more than ever.
I say this here and now, but it is also the words of RIO's chairman Stefan Attefall. He was a fairly well-known minister in a previous alliance government and is now one of those who defend the folk high schools' general courses and vocational programs as tools to get people into society and into work.
In northern Sweden, people are lacking in every corner and in almost every professional category. Then society together, the government and the Riksdag must have tools to ensure that those who can be of use get opportunities, and here the folk high schools are one of the most important tools.
How can we strengthen the folk high schools, Mats Persson? How can they get the right budget funds? How can we secure the folk high schools as an important tool to ensure that the young people who stand outside of society get in?
Utbildningsministern Mats Persson (L)
Madam Speaker! I thank the interpellator and the other debaters for their pleasant engagement and important contributions.
I myself have a background in the Swedish sports movement. I did not spend my youth in political youth organizations but in sports halls and know the importance of association life in a broad sense. There is nothing more important for cohesion, social upbringing, and understanding of democracy than association life. Whether it is in a sports club, in Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan, or at a folk high school is less important. The important thing is that this activity exists.
I do not think one can overestimate how important it is in a democracy that there is an association life that allows people to find an outlet for their creativity and their interest in sports or culture, or to learn something new also in the middle of life or when one has passed the teenage years. These are important activities for our country and for the Swedish education system as a whole.
Madam Speaker! At the same time, in recent years, there have been reports of much cheating and near-fraud within these operations, and the Swedish National Audit Office's audit, which arrived here recently, is not lenient regarding the lack of control and follow-up on how the money is used.
It is important to be able to hold two thoughts in one's head at the same time. On the one hand, we shall stand up for association life, and on the other hand, ensure that the state funds invested in association life are not unconditional. Freedom does not mean a lack of requirements, and society must set requirements. One such requirement is that the money is used in a way that is reasonable for the taxpayers, otherwise there is no longer any legitimacy.
That is why the government has on its agenda to ensure that a system is found that in a better way meets the taxpayers' legitimate demands and expectation that these funds are used in a correct manner.
I perceive that even the previous Social Democratic government saw this problem and therefore appointed the investigation that is now reviewing this, and here the investigation directives open up for making major changes. Sweden shall, however, also continue to have folk education and a strong association life.
I do not want to anticipate this investigation, and work is ongoing in the Government Offices to address the Swedish National Audit Office's serious criticism. No one can be satisfied with today's system given the reports of fraud and irregularities. It is our democratic and political task not to turn a blind eye to this, but to take measures so that the system can maintain its legitimacy. If legitimacy is lacking, there is a risk that people will no longer be prepared to continue paying tax money to the association life. There is therefore no more important task than to ensure that fraud is reduced and that we achieve control and governance over this activity.
I will also answer the question regarding the grants for the folk high schools. The government has high ambitions and is at a higher level than the previous Social Democratic government announced in its budget.
Linus Sköld (S)
Madam Speaker! The construction of the Tidö Agreement has already on several occasions shown that the government Mats Persson is part of remains only as long as it obeys the Sweden Democrats' command. The Sweden Democrats' immediate attitude towards popular education can be summarized in two short phrases: Much less money. Politically steered content so that it fits their nationalism.
That is why I believe that Mats Persson owes me and all other folk education enthusiasts in the country to answer these questions: Will he act to abolish the Folk Education Council? If he does, how will he then ensure that folk education will not be content-wise governed by the Sweden Democrats' nationalism or other political dogmas?
In the Tidö Agreement, it is stated that folkbildningen shall be streamlined. With that, one can assume that there will be less money in the future – that is what streamlining usually means. Mats Persson can, of course, correct me if I have assumed incorrectly.
Madam Speaker! At the same time, he has already begun the cuts. On November 2 of this year, approximately one week before the budget was presented, Mats Persson said in the news site Altinget the following: "I can already say that there will be no reduced appropriations for folkbildningen in this budget." In the current year, i.e., 2022, the appropriation was 14:1, in expenditure area 17, B contribution to folkbildningen 4,829,783,000 kronor. When the government's budget bill was then presented, it turned out that the same appropriation was 4,337,783,000, that is, 492 million kronor less than 2022.
Mats Persson is therefore following the same line as he did in an interpellation regarding educational places in the chamber a little over a week ago: calling budget cuts "investments." At that time, it concerned the general appropriations for adults, which the government is reducing by an amount corresponding to around 30,000 educational places. The week before, Mats Persson's colleague Parisa Liljestrand followed the same line when she claimed that a halving of the development grant to the culture school was an investment she was proud of.
Today, it specifically concerns funding cuts for adult education. Let me take another example. Since the refugee crisis in 2015, study associations have also had a special mission and special funding to work with asylum seekers' language learning and orientation in Swedish society. It is an important effort that gives those who have come to Sweden better conditions to get a running start on their integration and establishment, even though they have not yet been granted the right to instruction in SFI. The initiative is called Swedish from Day One.
It is financed by appropriation 14:3 Special measures within folk education 1. In 2022 it was 60 million, and Mats Persson promised no reduced appropriations in the Altinget. In the budget for next year, the same appropriation is allocated 30 million.
In hindsight, can Mats Persson admit that 30 million is less than 60 million? Can Mats Persson say that 4.3 billion is less than 4.8 billion?
Lawen Redar (S)
Madam Speaker! The Minister for Education seems to have a warm liberal commitment to association life, sports, human opportunity for education and culture, and describes the importance of association life for a fundamentally democratic and vital society.
It is true that the discovered fraud in Järva in 2019 prompted the National Audit Office's investigation and an initiative by the Social Democratic-led government to investigate the issue of folkbildningen.
The Minister for Education expresses in the interpellation here today that they do not want to anticipate the investigation, but in the Tidö Agreement between Sverigedemokraterna, Moderaterna, Kristdemokraterna and Liberalerna it is stipulated that "pending the proposals from the ongoing investigation on the follow-up and control of the state grant, further measures were needed to reform the support for folkbildningen".
Will the government take measures before we have an investigation to take a position on, as stipulated in the Tidö Agreement, or will you, as the Minister for Education expresses here today, wait for the results of the investigation?
Gunilla Svantorp (S)
Madam Speaker! I also intended to dwell on the money, in the same way as Linus Sköld. It is still minus 572 million kronor, and what is disappearing is the investment in the 3,000 extra places at folk high schools, which are not being extended. These are vocational places that are not being extended. It is Swedish for parents on parental leave that is not being extended. It is the study associations' efforts for people who are far from the labor market that are not being extended. And it is Svenska från dag ett that is reduced next year in order to disappear completely during 2024.
I would like to ask the Minister: Does he believe that these efforts have been of no use because he now does not think it is important to continue with the investments but instead makes other priorities? What can be more important than ensuring that those who are furthest from the labor market enter into social life? That is the whole idea of folkbildning.
We have had something at the folk high schools called the study-motivating folk high school course, where one can attend for three months. It started in 2010. Since then, 43,000 people have participated in SMF, as we call it. Of those younger than 25 years old, a full 36 percent have moved on to studies or work. These are fantastic figures, and I truly think that the new government and the minister should stick to such initiatives instead of investing in other things.
I want to ask: Why are cuts being made to the things that actually make a difference for the individual?
Isak From (S)
Madam Speaker! What Gunilla Svantorp raises is the core of what Mats Persson and the government need to take to heart.
The pandemic created various societal effects. Society went into a period of austerity in some parts, so did the study associations and folk education. The extra resources that the previous government allocated were absolutely necessary to maintain the standard and ensure that the expertise remained, but also to create new forms of meetings. One is transitioning to digital meetings and courses in a completely fantastic way that perhaps would not have occurred without the pandemic.
Now we are on our way back. Successively, the traditional physical meetings at both folk high schools and study associations are increasing. At the same time, we see growing unemployment in parts of the country, with more people standing outside the labor market and more people falling behind. In that case, the cuts that are now being made on the 3,000 extra places become particularly counterproductive, as they would be needed now to meet the recession and ensure that competence is raised.
Up in northern Sweden, as I mentioned, we need every single person, regardless of whether it is in healthcare, school, or industry. Every person is needed there – there is a labor shortage in every sector. Here, the folk high schools and adult education have an important place, and therefore these cuts become very strange.
Utbildningsministern Mats Persson (L)
Madam Speaker! It becomes a somewhat strange debate when the framing is that a Social Democratic minister had a press conference in 2020 or 2021 and told the Swedish people that it was a corona pandemic, that one therefore had a press conference and that one made temporary investments in, for example, the folk high schools until 2022. This was a temporary investment because there were additional costs during the pandemic and there was therefore a need. This was the announcement from a Social Democratic minister.
It was very clear that it was temporary. The Social Democrats wrote in their own budget that it was a temporary investment that expires in 2022. They told the Swedish people, the folk high schools, and the folk education that it was temporary money. When these funds expire and the new government, which has received the Swedish people's mandate for change, says that we have high ambitions for the folk high schools and folk education and that we have higher permanent appropriations than the previous Social Democratic government had, then one suddenly does not want to pretend that they were temporary investments.
It is how classic opposition politics goes, but it is important to bring this forward for the record. It is easy to promise and say things and such, but the Social Democrats themselves thought it was important that it was temporary money.
This government is making no cuts. We have permanent levels that are higher than in the budget proposals from the previous Social Democratic government. We have high ambitions for folkbildningen and the folk high schools, and no cuts are being made.
Linus Sköld (S)
Madam Speaker! The Minister still refuses to answer two very simple questions that I have asked in this chamber today: Will he abolish the Folkbildningsrådet? Does he consider 4.3 billion to be less than 4.8 billion? These questions still stand without an answer, Madam Speaker.
When I asked how Mats Persson would go about streamlining folkbildningen, he answered that there might be more control and better statistics. It is of course important, as the minister points out, that the grants for folkbildningen go to what they are intended for. But it is very uncertain whether more bureaucracy is the best way to streamline an operation. In any case, to be honest, he also should have answered "large grant reductions." It is obvious.
On the Liberals' website, it is possible to find decisions from their latest national meeting. In 2021, they adopted a proposal from a report titled Förortslyftet. Folkbildningen is touched upon in the report, but not a trace of the beautiful words Mats Persson uses in the interpellation response regarding folkbildningen's power and importance can be seen. Instead, the entire decision concerns the same starting point that the Tidö Agreement and the Sweden Democrats have, namely the suspicion of folkbildningen's actors and external steering and control that is prioritized over the values that folkbildningen upholds.
I wonder if Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan, which the Liberals are a part of, appreciates this suspicion. I believe that they, just as I and all other folkbildnings-minded people, would gladly have heard more about how the minister views the future of folkbildning and what kind of society the minister wants to see.
I believe in the popular movements. I know that they contribute to an educated population and a stronger democracy. If the minister wants our children to grow up in a society where people have the opportunity to educate themselves and learn throughout their lives based on their own interests, he should consider whether efficiencies and control are really the right way to go. If he, on the other hand, wants a society where the state decides what people are allowed to learn, the Tidö Agreement is completely on the right track.
Utbildningsministern Mats Persson (L)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Linus Sköld and the other participants, for a pleasant debate!
I must have expressed myself very clumsily, or else it is someone who is not listening with goodwill. That the government should be suspecting different organizations is a very serious accusation.
What we are concerned about is that there is no respect for the taxpayers' money and that fraud and irregularities are highlighted time and again. This the Swedish National Audit Office points out very clearly in its report, where it is not lenient in its criticism. That we in this situation should not increase the control and that we, as those responsible for the taxpayers' money, should not take measures to ensure that the money is used in a better way would be very irresponsible.
I do not at all share Linus Sköld's view that it is the wrong path to take to have more control. I believe it is absolutely necessary to have more control over an operation where there are such obvious signs and reports of fraud and irregularities. It would be irresponsible of the government not to act and try to use the taxpayers' money in a better way. The taxpayers, in fact, have the right to have a public education that stands up for democracy, which ensures that it is democratic values, which stands up for free opinion formation, but also the right to know that this money is used with respect for the people who get up every morning, go to work and pay tax and that this money is used for the right things. This responsibility rests on us.
I do not agree at all with Linus Sköld that there is something wrong with control. Control is important so that taxpayers can know that the money is being used in the right way.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.