Response to interpellation 2022/23:58 on the lack of compensation for electricity and gas users in Skåne

Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)

Mr. Talma and honorable members of Parliament! Member of Parliament Ola Möller has asked me how I view the promise that consumers would receive electricity compensation by November 1, whether I intend to meet representatives for Region Skåne and thereby the population of Skåne, and whether I intend to compensate customers for increased gas prices and, if so, in what way.

On October 27, 2022, we presented, together with the business entity Svenska kraftnät, the model for the government's electricity support to Swedish households and companies. On the same day, Svenska kraftnät applied to Energimarknadsinspektionen to use 55 billion kronor from the so-called bottleneck revenues, or capacity charges, to finance this. Energimarknadsinspektionen has since approved Svenska kraftnät's application, and Försäkringskassan has announced that the payments to households will begin on February 20.

On 9 January 2023, the government decided to task Svenska kraftnät with applying to Energimarknadsinspektionen to use the bottleneck revenues to finance a new electricity support. The support shall be targeted at households throughout Sweden and is intended as compensation for households' electricity costs during November and December 2022.

Regarding the issue of potential compensation for high gas prices, the government announced on December 6, 2022, that a gas price subsidy will be issued to the approximately 27,000 households in Sweden that are connected to the west Swedish main gas grid. The plan is for the gas price subsidy to correspond to the high-cost protection for electricity and amount to 79 öre per kilowatt-hour for the period October 2021-September 2022.

I move on to the question regarding visits to Skåne. At the beginning of December, I visited Skåne, where I, among other things, met representatives for the region, Företagarna Region Syd, NCC, the Volvo Group, and SSAB. During my visit, I was also in contact with the chairman of the regional board, Carl Johan Sonesson, and the chairman of the regional development committee, Anna Jähnke. We had a constructive conversation about how the energy crisis affects Skåne and will continue to have a dialogue on these issues.

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Ola Möller (S)

Mr. Speaker! "We hear you," said the future Minister for Enterprise during the election campaign. She heard and gave a promise of money in the account on November 1. Then that didn't work, and then it became "well before Christmas" – this was what was written on the future Minister for Enterprise's Instagram account. We have not seen any trace of some money, and that has of course created anger – a justified one, which is channeled in the chamber here today.

That households would receive compensation starting on February 20, we have, belatedly, been informed. But it does not apply to all households; some have to wait until March. Not all households are treated equally either – condominiums and rental apartments only receive partial compensation, if it is not omitted entirely.

For the gas customers, the compensation is looming somewhere in the future, but we do not know when. The companies have not received any date. Furthermore, technicalities that have been poorly managed may mean that many companies do not receive more than a fraction of the 22 million that the ceiling is. Cooperatives can be affected by the same thing.

Unfortunately, it doesn't stop there. Widows can be left without compensation because the husband's name was on the electricity bill.

People have used their last savings while waiting for a compensation that was supposed to arrive well before Christmas. But banks and electricity companies have passed this on to the Enforcement Authority, for in a Minister for Business's words, it is worth very little on the payment market. Now, moreover, the bills are increasing.

At the same time, Mr. Speaker, the government and SD have said no to measures to alleviate the crisis. They have said no to a crisis fund. Crisis calls have been rejected. The child allowance is not to be increased.

Those who, on the other hand, have received help and relief are the heart of the right-wing government's policy. High-income earners receive 13 billion in tax cuts. Furthermore, the compensation is kept secret. One does not need to be very well-versed in the order of things to understand why. The same people who receive 13 billion in tax cuts will to a large extent be overcompensated due to the design of the support. The government obviously does not want to show this, because it shows that it is the same groups that are favored by its policy time and again. Therefore, it is also interesting that the Minister for Enterprise herself does not want to answer what electricity bill she has when other party leaders tell this without beating around the bush.

I am sorry, Mr. Speaker, but there is more. Despite the possibility of levying a tax on the profits which, according to some estimates, amounted to 80 billion last year, the government has dragged its feet. This could have been done since October last year. Now it is being introduced in March, and then on a few paltry hundreds of millions - a pittance.

The Minister for Enterprise usually speaks about the heartland. I and my comrades here in the chamber represent the heartland, from north to south. The Minister for Enterprise said during the election campaign that she heard the heartland. I hope that she hears how damned, disappointed, and saddened these voters and citizens are. They are damned because the Minister for Enterprise, according to the chairman of the regional board in Skåne, is very arrogant and unserious and because the management and actions are pathetic. These are not my words, but they are the words of her coalition comrade.

They are also damned because she does not want to drink coffee in Skåne. Besides it being the Minister for Enterprise's loss that she does not get to taste the world's best coffee - a good cup of Skånerost - down in Helsingborg, it is such that the people of Skåne expect an apology for how the Minister for Enterprise acted.

Now the Minister for Enterprise gets the chance. Can the Minister for Enterprise here and now apologize to the people of Skåne for the poor conduct?

(Applause)

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Adrian Magnusson (S)

Mr. Speaker! So we are finally here – more than 60 days after this interpellation was submitted. Much has happened during these more than 60 days. We have been informed that the electricity support that was supposed to be in place on November 1, 2022, will start being paid out in February, at least to some of the country's electricity consumers, for example, the people of Skåne.

A common topic of conversation around the Scanian Christmas tables was precisely the electricity price support. The Swedish people, which the government hopefully considers includes the Scanians, should be able to celebrate Christmas in peace knowing that there would be a high-cost protection for the high electricity prices. But there wasn't. Now it seems, however, that it is coming in February. We must hope so, so that it does not need to become a new discussion over the Easter dinner in the Scanian heartland, for example in Peppinge, Rörum or Skivarp.

Mr. Speaker! The concern of the people of Skåne regarding the high electricity prices has been known for a long time. Skåne is, as we know, the gateway to the continent. On the other side of the strait, the world begins. It is therefore not surprising that Putin's energy war against the European so-called electricity market hits Skåne particularly hard. This has been known for a long time, both in the Chamber and at the Government Offices - hopefully also after October 18, 2022.

It is therefore not particularly strange that Scanian politicians, broadly across party lines, express concern over electricity prices. They should be met with sympathy and understanding even north of Osby.

Judge, therefore, my surprise when I read that the highly relevant concern regarding electricity prices from the Moderate Party's regional chairman of Skåne was dismissed by the then relatively newly appointed Minister for Energy and Enterprise. An invitation, presented in all good intentions to discuss the situation and concern of the people of Skåne, was dismissed as coffee drinking. The reaction was sharp, the irritation great, and the frustration significant. Everything else had been remarkable. It was nevertheless a colleague on the political right wing who was dismissed in this manner. It was a surprising degree of arrogance and nonchalance toward Skåne, the people of Skåne, and Skåne's representatives that was displayed a few months ago.

Mr. Speaker! After this interpellation was submitted, the Minister for Energy and Industry traveled to Skåne and met with Skåne representatives. Whether coffee, tea, or any other drink was consumed is not part of the story. But it is remarkable that an interpellation in Sweden's Riksdag was required for Skåne representatives to be treated with respect. It should not be necessary, but it is obviously this government's melody.

Mr. Speaker! I wonder if the Minister for Energy and Business has reflected on how she and her staff acted a few months ago? Does she consider it okay to dismiss the Moderate regional board chairman's concern and invitation as coffee drinking? How will she address concern conveyed from leading Skåne representatives, right-wing politicians, or not?

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Marianne Fundahn (S)

Mr. Speaker! I will tell you about Ingrid, a single pensioner aged 82. Ingrid, like 830 other households in Trelleborg, uses gas for heating. She has done so since the 1980s when gas arrived in Trelleborg. At that time, Ingrid and her husband decided to replace the dirty oil heating, and the choice fell on gas. First it was natural gas and then biogas, because as Ingrid says, they wanted to protect the environment.

It worked well until a few years ago when gas prices began to rise drastically. Ingrid previously had a fixed contract of 50 öre per kilowatt-hour, but when the contract expired, it was no longer possible to sign a contract with a fixed price. The same applied to the electricity. Despite the fact that Ingrid tries to save and has lowered the heating, she has a gas bill of 11,000 kronor per month. Added to that is the cost for household electricity. The pension must also suffice for food and other costs.

This cannot continue in the long run, and Ingrid is afraid that she will not be able to afford to stay in the house that she and her now deceased husband bought 43 years ago. She also wonders where she is going to find another residence, because there are no apartments available.

On December 6, Ingrid received a long-awaited and welcome announcement when the government made a decision on the gas support. This positive news was, however, clouded by the fact that she and other households with gas do not know when they will receive the support. It is also a short-term solution.

It has been announced that the gas price will continue to remain high. A long-term solution is needed here so that Ingrid and other gas customers can avoid worrying about what happens next. What solution does Minister Busch see for Ingrid and other gas customers?

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Joakim Sandell (S)

Mr. Speaker! I intended to link to my colleague's meritorious account of Ingrid's skyrocketing bills. The Social Democrats presented a proposal in the Committee on Finance which, although it would not have solved Ingrid's problems in the long term, would have helped in the short term – and in such a situation, it is important to have both short-term and long-term solutions. Many with high gas bills do not, in fact, have problems with solvency but with liquidity. Here, an electricity and gas bill emergency fund could help.

This has furthermore become even more acute given that the electricity support which is to begin being paid out on 20 February is actually not an electricity support but an energy-type support, as gas is excluded.

Ingrid and other consumers in Skåne who have problems with liquidity but not solvency now have no other choice than to get rid of assets, but getting rid of assets when one is forced to do so to pay bills is rarely a good economic idea.

Why did you say no to the help that was actually available for Ingrid, namely the electricity and gas bill emergency relief?

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Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)

Mr. Speaker! Let me repeat: We see you, we hear you and we will not leave anyone behind.

Taking Sweden through this difficult energy crisis is an absolute highest priority. I mean that the Swedish people have the right to demand accountability for the fact that Sweden finds itself in this vulnerable position. That responsibility lies primarily with the Socialdemokraterna and Miljöpartiet, with the support of Vänsterpartiet and partly Centerpartiet. The Swedish people also have the right to demand accountability so that Sweden does not end up here again and so that Sweden can get out of the energy crisis. That responsibility falls on me and the government.

Already last winter, I received many letters and calls from citizens who were finding it difficult to make ends meet financially. On many occasions, I told the story of a pensioner who at that time had an electricity bill that was larger than his entire pension.

This is the reason why we are now moving forward with an electricity subsidy in several rounds that is significantly larger than the previous government's, arrives much faster and is more secure. Several households will now have an electricity subsidy in the first round of 16,000 kronor upwards, to compare with the few thousand kronor that the previous electricity subsidy from the previous government amounted to. It will also arrive faster. The previous electricity subsidy reached households from April onwards, some during the summer. This electricity subsidy begins to be paid out on February 20. It is also more secure. No one can really account for whether the previous electricity subsidy - this we will discuss in an interpellation debate later this afternoon - actually reached all households. It was not particularly legally secure.

There has been talk about my relationship with Carl Johan Sonesson, the regional councilor in Skåne. I can tell the Chamber and others listening that the relationship is good, especially when one looks past media feathers about me sending out invitations to different parts of the country for coffee parties. They are not. I am happy to visit all parts of our beautiful, elongated country.

In my response to Region Skåne, I also said that I would gladly visit Skåne – but not to be one in the line of politicians who complain that the growth engine that the Öresund region is not has sufficiently good conditions but then do not deliver any solutions. I prioritized visits to Skåne when we had the opportunity to deliver on more details regarding the electricity support but above all also a gas support. For note it: The previous government had no gas support at all and also had no support at all for the companies.

What would be genuinely disrespectful of me – that is the great lesson here – is to pretend that it doesn't matter when one removes 3,000 megawatts from the Swedish energy system. It does matter. Now, the slow but important reconstruction of the Swedish energy system begins in order to press prices, increase robustness, and make Sweden less vulnerable.

Then I want to turn to those who wonder what happens with the electricity support if one is affected by grief after having lost a husband or wife. You will, of course, be able to receive the electricity support. We are currently resolving the technicalities surrounding this. It will be paid out. Those who are in grief should not have to face an even greater burden in their already tough situation. We will resolve that situation.

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Ola Möller (S)

Mr. Speaker! I would like to thank the Minister for Enterprise for her speech. The final announcement was pleasing.

I must also, now that I have the opportunity, say that I stand behind the Minister for Enterprise's choice of attire when she traveled to Norrland. As a person from Skåne, I would also have dressed in the same way, so all sympathy in that case.

However, I have no sympathy when it is said that no one should be left behind. I have also received letters. I have met people who have had to leave their homes because they did not receive the electricity support when they trusted the Minister for Enterprise and her coalition colleagues. They are left behind. They are furious. Fine words about nuclear power in the future will no longer suffice as some kind of bandage on the wounds. It was, after all, the case that the Minister for Enterprise promised this – on November 1, and then well before Christmas – together with the Prime Minister.

If we had used this logic on other things, we would already have new nuclear power in the wall sockets - the government has indeed appointed inquiries and is going to change laws. The shootings would have ceased - the government is going to carry out rule-of-law-violating inquiries to put a stop to them. There would also be a fixed connection between Helsingborg and Helsingør - the previous government did investigate that. That is the logic applied from the government's side: The support was in place, therefore people should be satisfied. No, they are left in the lurch!

I can inform the Minister for Enterprise that no new nuclear power will actually come out of the wall, and it will not for a long time. I can inform that the delays continue, despite the investigations. I can also inform that if one tries to drive under the Öresund just north of Råå vallar, one will either experience an engine failure or drown before reaching Helsingör. That is how it is.

Therefore, it becomes empty words to stand here and say that we see you and we hear you, when the money is not in the account. You cannot go to the bank with a promise that money will come. The entrepreneurs said regarding the support to the companies that if one had received a date, one would have had a secure claim against the state. Then one could have gone to the bank and said: I get the money on that day, so we can resolve this.

I do not understand why the government is dragging its feet. That is what is happening. It has been a clumsy handling. Point by point, things are being uncovered - it is the widows, it is the companies, it is the gas customers. It shows that the government is not up to the task.

We can have a long discussion about the energy system. We can say something about that too. But managing people's finances here and now is a government's task, and on that task, the government has failed. There is no doubt about that.

When it comes to the way of expressing oneself in the media, these—at least the sensible media that are not alternative and do not find themselves in another reality—usually quote correctly. It was still the case that the Minister for Enterprise expressed himself in terms of coffee drinking. I do not understand how one, as Minister for Enterprise, in response to a direct invitation to come to one of the country's largest regions, can express oneself in such a way that it yields quotes from the chairman of the regional board about arrogance, lack of seriousness, and that it is pathetic.

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Adrian Magnusson (S)

Mr. Speaker! My colleague from Skåne concluded by bringing up this matter with the coffee drinking – I do not want to go to Skåne and drink coffee. That choice of words has not been addressed, and as far as I know, an apology has never been issued for it. It was mentioned that it was clearly written in a text message and met a very powerful reaction from a Moderate regional board chairman. It would have been possible to address an elected representative with significantly more respect than that.

But as we all know, this government never makes any mistakes. It is always someone else's fault, and if one is to have said something, it can always be spun into something else. Something else was meant by what was said. Something always means something else. November 1, 2022 means February 20, 2023. Drinking coffee means thank you very much for the invitation, I would love to come. Taking responsibility means pointing at someone else.

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Marianne Fundahn (S)

Mr. Speaker! Unfortunately, Ingrid and I received no answer as to what will happen with the gas customers.

It is not only households with gas heating that are affected by the high gas prices, but also companies that use gas. A bakery in my hometown has been forced to raise bread prices by 25 percent, which hits the customers hard. This is now not solely due to the gas prices, it should be said, even though it is a large part. It is also partly due to the increased fuel costs. They also say that the increases could become even larger. However, it takes three to four months to push through price adjustments, and much can happen in the meantime.

It also creates an uneven competitive situation when companies that use electricity are promised support, even if they do not quite know when they will receive the support, while companies that use gas receive no support at all. Can the Minister explain why the companies that use gas receive no support at all?

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Joakim Sandell (S)

Mr. Speaker! When I listened to the Minister's answer to our questions, I thought of a post in the party leadership debate recently: "I do not think that anyone listening to today's debate is particularly served by a blame game. We have enough politicians who blame their mistakes on others and do not want to take responsibility themselves."

The answer to the interpellation begins, however, with exactly this, a blame game. Ingrid and other gas customers in Skåne are not served by this blame game but have the right to demand answers from the government as to why it is not possible to establish short-term support, such as an electricity and gas price emergency, for gas customers like Ingrid. I heard no answer to that question in the Minister's statement, so I must be allowed to ask it again.

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Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)

Mr. Speaker! I want to address the question of the timing of the electricity support. Nine days after we took office in government, the Swedish people could calculate what they will receive in electricity support and what they are entitled to.

The first electricity subsidy of the two we have presented covers significantly more households - millions more - than the previous government's electricity subsidy did. It was a security that we thought was important to provide, and thus we also delivered on the promise that one could celebrate a blue Christmas instead of a so-called red-green Christmas, as the rhetoric said.

In several interviews in connection with our presentation of the proposal on the high-cost protection, I was asked whether this meant that one would certainly have the money in the account before Christmas, and in several interviews I answered no.

On the Christian Democrats' website, to answer for my own party, it clearly states: "However, it will only be possible to decide what each household shall receive in compensation in retrospect, when price and consumption are known. It is therefore not realistic that electricity customers receive money in their accounts before Christmas. Last winter, the first payments to electricity customers were made in March." I believe it should be April, to be strictly correct. We have, therefore, tried to be very clear about what it meant.

It is not true that the government cannot stand for it if we change our minds and do not deliver what we have said. We have been very clear that we have changed the model. There will be no high-cost protection, but instead there will be an electricity support. We have accounted for the very valid reasons why we have changed the model in a difficult economic situation, where we do not want to drive up electricity consumption now that the authorities have come out and said that we have moved from a low risk of disconnection in the electricity system to a real risk, i.e., that one needs to rotate blackouts and that it will be dark in shifts.

Regarding the question of an electricity bill emergency, we had contact with the electricity trading companies, who stated that it would be very difficult. They came to the Riksdag and advised against it. We also note that an electricity bill emergency or similar could have been in place after the electricity support had arrived, and at that point, we thought it was more important to deliver on the electricity support. We have also tried to listen to those who would need to handle such an electricity bill emergency.

I also want to address the question of pointing fingers. As I was mentioning, I believe that the Swedish people have the right to demand accountability for why we are in this vulnerable position. This responsibility unfortunately does not lie with me – if it did, we would have done things differently – but the responsibility to ensure that it does not continue to be this way lies entirely with me and the government.

When it comes to not pointing fingers, does it mean that one cannot demand accountability? No, one must be able to demand accountability for why 3,000 megawatts have disappeared, why we have focused so much on just getting more electricity production and not on having an energy mix that has the right characteristics and that ensures we have electricity where it is needed, when it is needed, in all parts of the country, 24/7, 365 days a year, or on which characteristics were needed. It is because we need to learn lessons. It is therefore about the right to accountability but also about learning, in order to ensure that we do not end up in this situation again.

Again: It is difficult to compensate in retrospect when parts of the electricity system have been dismantled. Our task now is to ensure that we do not end up in that situation again, but in the meantime, we receive an electricity subsidy that will come significantly faster than the previous one, which is considerably larger, which is much safer, and which reaches many more Swedes in a very difficult time.

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Ola Möller (S)

Mr. Speaker! It is a fortunate turn that we have had a Social Democratic government that could mandate Svenska kraftnät to develop a much larger and better electricity compensation than the one we were forced to arrange in all haste last winter because Putin illegally invaded Ukraine.

The Minister for Enterprise should thank the Social Democrats for the excellent preparatory work, where half the country was not excluded. It was the government and the Minister for Enterprise themselves who chose to exclude, but that will be discussed later. Everything is still going to be the Social Democrats' fault, because they are actually evil. That is why one cannot have an energy agreement with them.

Ebba Busch was party leader in 2016 when an energy agreement was concluded, which the Kristdemokraterna and Moderaterna left and which, for example, meant that new nuclear power could be built. Ebba Busch was a municipal councillor in Uppsala when her own party comrades sat in the government and made an energy agreement in 2011, but the Minister for Enterprise does not know anything about that. She has no responsibility for it, rather it is the Social Democrats' fault.

Now I will be constructive. I wish that the Minister for Enterprise instead had spoken about how we are to expand the seven offshore wind farms that are on the government's table. How can we ensure that a fully functioning power plant in Malmö is not shipped off to China? How can we stop the market mechanisms in the electricity price areas now that they are being reviewed? How can we decouple gas prices from the other energy prices on the European market? How can we talk about batteries in Skåne – such as those they have in Australia, which are in the thousands of megawatts and that could stand somewhere in Skåne where Skånian Moderates want to build nuclear power. Put the battery parks there!

Let us talk about this, and let us have cross-bloc conversations that are not conditioned on saying yes or no but that actually commit to the fact that we shall be technology-neutral and believe in the future, as there are many opportunities to solve it. But this is not what the government wants, because then they would have to capitulate from their standpoint that everything is the Social Democrats' fault.

(Applause)

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Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)

Mr. Speaker! I can please Ola Möller and others watching this debate by stating that the long list of requested measures for shorter permit processes, decisions on offshore wind power and so on, has now reached the government's table and that we are actively working on them. I can inform you that we are working on all of this and that we are happy to cooperate if there are good ideas on how this can be implemented in the best possible way.

I stand by the fact that I, as party leader in 2016, was involved in concluding the energy agreement that removed the harmful electricity tax. But the largest party, which also sat in the government, repeatedly stated via its finance minister and subsequently prime minister and party leader Magdalena Andersson that we need to phase out nuclear power in the long run and that we would like to have more electricity production but not new nuclear power. It is clear that this sends a signal to the market that nuclear power is not welcome.

The new government and the four coalition parties work under the motto that all good forces are needed and that water, wind and sun are welcome but also nuclear power, for we are a beautiful but elongated country that needs to have sufficient electricity production both in southern Sweden and in northern Sweden if we are to manage the green transition, safeguard Swedish jobs and obtain more reasonable electricity prices for households in the future.

I would like to conclude by saying that I enjoy drinking coffee, but preferably in combination with delivery. It is for too many politicians who have complained about the difficult situations for our entrepreneurs and households but who have not succeeded in solving the difficult knots. I enjoy drinking Skånerost, even though there are many other types of coffee in our beautiful elongated country. I would gladly do this when we can get down to business and move from words to action, and I would gladly do it with Social Democrats in the future as well.

The interpellation debate was hereby concluded.

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