Response to interpellation 2023/24:783 on democracy and rights issues in northern Sweden
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerned democracy and rights issues in northern Sweden, particularly regarding reindeer husbandry legislation and land use. KD argued that the government prioritizes issues of alienation following the Girjas judgment and that the Renmark Committee should take into account the Sami's rights as well as the other local population's culture, traditions, and commercial interests 1 2. KD emphasized that the committee consists of many experts and that the process requires broad anchoring 3 4. - argued that the Sami are not the only indigenous people and that current legislation is an ethnic separation law that disadvantages other peoples, such as the Kvens and mountain farmers 5 6. - argued that the state has carried out a forced relocation of mountain farmers and that the solution is local management on equal terms for everyone 7.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Landsbygdsministern Peter Kullgren (KD)
Madam Speaker! [The member] has asked me if I have taken part in and considered the new knowledge that has been acquired through research in a number of areas that the member describes in the interpellation. Elsa Widding has further asked me why the new knowledge described in the interpellation is not reflected in the development of the national policy for northern Sweden in the event that I have taken part in the research within these areas. Finally, Elsa Widding has asked me how I intend to act to take into account all affected peoples, cultures, and industries in northern Sweden in the continued work.
Madam Speaker! The Supreme Court has in the so-called Girjas judgment concluded that the Girjas sameby within its village area on state land above the cultivation limit has an exclusive right in relation to the state to grant hunting and fishing, despite the Reindeer Husbandry Act (1971:437) not giving the sameby any such right. After the Girjas judgment, the current reindeer husbandry legislation can no longer be considered generally applicable to all samebys.
In May 2021, the government decided on committee directives for new reindeer husbandry legislation (2021:35 and dir. 2022:58). The reindeer husbandry legislation regulates the conditions for the reindeer husbandry, which in Sweden, according to the constitution, is an exclusive livelihood for the Sámi. The government considers it urgent to prioritize the issues regarding licensing rules following the Supreme Court's conclusions in the Girjas judgment. The provisions concerning the Sámi villages' exclusive rights in relation to the state licensing hunting and fishing have therefore been addressed in the committee's partial report Hunting and fishing in reindeer grazing lands (2023:46). The committee submits there proposals for a regulation of the licensing provisions in the reindeer husbandry act that can apply temporarily until a new permanent regulation is in place.
The work of the Renmark Committee is still ongoing. Therefore, it is too early to comment on the first two of Elsa Widding's questions. Regarding the member's third question, how I intend to act to take into account all affected people, cultures, and industries in northern Sweden in the continued work, I want to mention that it is part of the committee's mandate to also take into account, in addition to the Sami's rights, the other local population's culture, traditions, interests and needs to be able to hunt and fish, as well as other business activities, such as forestry and tourism.
The Renmark Committee's partial report has been referred. The final date for response has been set to June 10, 2024. Several referral bodies have, however, requested an extended response time, which has been granted as it is important to receive the referral bodies' views. When all referral responses have been received, they will be processed in the usual manner within the Government Offices.
Elsa Widding (-)
Madam Speaker! To unilaterally refer to investigations and ignore facts is not quite an answer to my questions. The fact is that the Sami are recent in relation to other peoples. To give the Sami status as an indigenous people in the southern mountain range is actually a mockery of the Old Scandinavians with roots stretching back thousands of years. It is a mockery of the Kvens, Lantalaiset, and Tornedalingar, who all have a history in Sweden at least as long as the Sami.
The Minister turns a blind eye to all the facts and to the injustices that prevail in Norrland today. The Minister considers reindeer husbandry to be an exclusive industry for the Sami. One could also say that it concerns an exclusive race law from 1928. Before the establishment of the race laws, the farmers in Härjedalen had more reindeer than the Sami, but other people also engaged in reindeer husbandry in Lappland.
Why does the minister not mention the Härjedal ruling, for example? There, the Sami reindeer herders lost, as far as I know, on all points in the European Court of Human Rights. The relevant Girjas ruling should not form the basis for the future design of laws concerning land use, whether it be state land above the cultivation limit or other areas where reindeer husbandry is conducted.
This is actually about three things. The Sámi are politically recognized as an indigenous people, but they are not the only indigenous people in Sweden. Now there is a new knowledge-supported description of the early immigration to Sweden and the establishment of peoples, cultures, and industries in Sweden, northern Scandinavia, and the Nordic countries. The question then is why more ethnic groups with an equally long or longer history in today's Sweden than the Sámi are not highlighted and granted status as indigenous people.
Then we have the Sami Parliament. Then the obvious question is whether it is compatible with a democracy to have a state agency that is based on ethnicity.
The third question concerns the Reindeer Husbandry Act. Until the 1928 Reindeer Grazing Act, the mountain farmers had more reindeer than the Sámi in Härjedalen. But just like the Kven, Lantalaiset, and Tornedalingar in Lappland, they had to stop with reindeer husbandry. A small part in the north remained in the form of the contemporary consumption reindeer husbandry, an opportunity that unfortunately was not offered to the mountain farmers in either Jämtland or Härjedalen.
The Reindeer Husbandry Act is therefore based on ethnic prioritization of reindeer husbandry, but it also grants other rights. We are talking about a politically created distinction law built on ethnicity. It is nothing other than a race law in Sweden in 2024! The Swedish state protects a smaller group of entrepreneurs, reindeer husbandry, within a certain ethnic group, the Sámi, and it occurs at the expense of other ethnic groups.
This government and previous governments long ago bear responsibility for the fact that Scandinavian mountain farmers, Sami farming, and the Kvens, Lantalaiset, and Tornedalingar in the Northern Lapland have been forced almost entirely away from their original livelihoods - traditional activities and a historical land use based on immemorial prescription.
An objective fact-check is now needed regarding the group of Sámi who established themselves in Sweden as late as the 1800s and expanded southward along the mountain range until the mid-1900s and have successively been allocated lands southward along the Swedish mountain range at the expense of the original population's lands. This displacement, the so-called forced displacement of mountain farmers, really needs to be mapped in a scientific and objective way if we are to move forward regarding all these problems in Norrland.
Landsbygdsministern Peter Kullgren (KD)
Madam Speaker! The Government is well aware that the issues that the Renmark Committee has to handle are complex and that it involves difficult trade-offs.
Madam Speaker! I do not actually perceive anything new in Elsa Widding's contribution that cannot be traced back to my original answer, except that I may possibly add that the government has decided on additional directives for the investigation. This means that the committee shall, in addition to the rights of the Sámi, also take into account the rest of the local population, including the national minority, the Tornedalians. The culture, tradition, interests and needs of other residents to be able to hunt and fish are also included in this, as well as other business activities such as forestry and tourism.
Elsa Widding (-)
Madam Speaker! How does the Minister then justify what is happening today? It is about Sami and reindeer herders who lack historical roots in Sweden, not least in the southern mountain area, being granted rights, i.e., land that is being taken from indigenous Scandinavians and other people who have demonstrably existed in the country Sweden and conducted traditional industries for thousands of years. Reference is only made to investigations.
The Sami Parliament disposes of a considerable budget that gives this specific ethnic group completely different opportunities to influence their life situation compared to the opportunities given to other indigenous cultures and peoples in northern Sweden.
I am eager that the Minister shows that he understands this. A friend of democracy and justice asks why these people do not have the same rights as the Sámi. When discriminated-against ethnic groups in Sweden try to raise their issues and look after their interests, they are accused of being against the Sámi. I believe that is a very dangerous development that, in the end, will not benefit anyone.
We must, from a political standpoint, dare to talk about the problems that exist in Norrland, for how else can the problems find their solution? We cannot simply refer to inquiries. The policy that was supposed to favor diversity has instead become a policy of uniformity.
I can take an example. The county administrative boards' reindeer husbandry delegations consist of officials, politicians and reindeer owners, but not a single representative from other peoples and industries is represented when decisions are to be made that affect peoples and industries other than the Sami. Isn't that a bit strange?
Madam Speaker! We might as well call those in the north who are not Sámi second-class citizens, for that is how they are treated. The Discrimination Act maintains contradictions in northern Sweden, not least regarding issues concerning land areas that the state has for large parts taken under its control under threat of expropriation or redistributed to reindeer husbandry. The same applies to the Sámi fund, which previously consisted of four funds but has now been merged into just one fund. Among the four funds, the Jämtland forest fund was the largest, and the school in Högvålen received funding from that fund when it was built. Now, the four funds have become one fund, the Sámi fund, which only benefits Sámi purposes.
The contradictions in these issues have been discussed for more than 130 years, but one does not seem to have come any closer to a solution. The problems are the same now as they were then, but the frustration increases day by day.
Madam Speaker! There are many in our vast country who now expect the government to handle the issues and find good solutions in a democratically considered and factually grounded manner. And what is it then that builds up the contradictions, one might wonder. It is not just about land areas, but it can be seemingly small changes that contribute to increased frustration. For example, it can be about Swedish local names on the maps being replaced by Sami names. Previous names for villages, mountains, and lakes are replaced with Sami names, which is now occurring on a large scale with newly constructed Sami names, especially in the southern mountain area.
We as politicians must dare to stand for equal conditions for all citizens in the entire country. It is unacceptable that the Norrland policy unilaterally takes a stand for the Sámi and reindeer husbandry.
The designated reindeer husbandry area covers half of Sweden's surface today, if I understand the matter correctly. The Sámi have their own state authority, the Sametinget. The Sámi have their own radio and TV channels. Sámi films and Sámi theater are produced. They have their own national day despite not being a separate nation. The Sámi have several systematic advantages and assets that other peoples, cultures, and industries in the north do not have access to.
Landsbygdsministern Peter Kullgren (KD)
Madam Speaker! If Elsa Widding wants to discuss the existence or non-existence of the Sámi Parliament, I recommend that she write another interpellation to the responsible minister. I am responsible for the reindeer husbandry in Sweden. The Renmark Committee falls under me, so to speak. But, as I am completely convinced that the member knows, a minister cannot comment on ongoing investigations. I am therefore not allowed to do so.
Let me just make a small addition. The Renmark Committee includes no fewer than eleven experts and 27 specialists. All represent different interests and specific expertise, including such as those Elsa Widding here brings up. But these appointed experts and specialists do not constitute the only knowledge base for the work. I know that the committee's secretariat continuously meets with additional stakeholders and knowledge bearers who are affected by the assignment the committee has. In addition, it is possible for all citizens to forward information to the investigation, both to the secretariat and to the members.
Elsa Widding (-)
Madam Speaker! I am completely convinced that the Minister will be able to help solve these issues, regardless of who in the government handles them. The issues are connected, and I believe it is the state that has created the problems by offering lands in the south of the mountain area to immigrated North Sámi.
The state thus carried out a forced relocation of mountain farmers when it forcibly purchased the mountain farmers' lands in order to be able to transfer these to late-arriving Sámi with roots in Russia, Finland, and Norway. Historical facts and new research revealing the early immigration of several peoples, several cultures, and several traditional industries have been silenced. The government has until today chosen to focus solely on late-arriving Sámi. Furthermore, there is a very one-sided indigenous policy that in practice hinders authorities, cultural institutions, and the research that correctly highlights new knowledge about the early immigration of several peoples, cultures, and traditional industries.
This is a large part of the entire problem. Therefore, it is now reasonable for the state to take its responsibility and rectify what it has caused. There are solutions to the problems - that is what is so good - which could contribute to increased equality and democracy in the northern part of the country. This involves, among other things, providing opportunities for the development of local administration on state lands.
Elinor Ostrom received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2009 for her research on precisely local management. She showed that people can cooperate regarding natural resources. I believe, therefore, that these problems can be solved. It is about letting the lands be managed by the local population - on equal terms, regardless of ethnic affiliation and professional affiliation.
Article 1 of the UN states that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. That is not the case in today's Sweden, but I am completely convinced that the government can soon contribute to changing this. I also believe that the Sámi people would benefit from it in the long run.
Landsbygdsministern Peter Kullgren (KD)
Madam Speaker! The Government is well aware that these are very complex issues affecting very many people. In order to be able to take those affected into account, the Government prioritizes a broad anchoring in this process. As was mentioned earlier, it is also one of the reasons why we have a parliamentary committee that is assisted by many both specialists and experts.
The committee report from the Renmark Committee, Hunting and fishing in reindeer grazing lands, has been referred broadly. As also mentioned, additional time has been requested, and we have granted it. There are still referral bodies that have not yet submitted their responses.
The committee's extensive work is not finished, and I, as minister, shall not anticipate those processes.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.