Response to interpellation 2024/25:575 on the lack of rehearsal spaces

Utbildningsministern Johan Pehrson (L)

Madam Speaker! Mats Berglund has asked me how I view the situation for rehearsal rooms and music houses around Sweden, whether the government will conduct any impact assessment regarding the cuts to folk education, and what measures I and the government intend to take to strengthen the free Swedish music scene and to what extent rehearsal rooms and music houses are included in these potential measures.

To begin with, I want to emphasize that popular education is important for a rich cultural life throughout Sweden. One of the four purposes of the state's support for popular education is to contribute to broadening the interest in and increasing participation in cultural life.

Every budget is about priorities, and the proposal for an adjustment of the state grant to the student unions in the budget bill for 2024 (prop. 2023/24:1) was preceded by careful considerations within the Government Offices. In the budget bill for 2024, the government simultaneously increased the state grant to the folk high schools by 100 million kronor. This level is expected to remain permanent. In the budget bill for 2025 (prop. 2024/25:1), the government increased the special educational support intended to facilitate studies at folk high schools for persons with disabilities by 25 million kronor. The government also expects that the support will be increased in 2026 and 2027.

It is important to see that the government for 2025 allocates a total of just over 4 billion kronor to folk education through state grants. This concerns approximately 2.4 billion kronor distributed in general state grants to folk high schools and approximately 1.6 billion kronor in general state grants to study associations. It is thus extensive state support that enables very important educational activities all over the country, including with a cultural focus. Each study association and folk high school has great freedom to independently prioritize the activities based on the state's objectives with the support for folk education.

It is also important to emphasize the shared responsibility for financing adult education. This means that the state, the regions, the municipalities, the governing bodies, and individuals have a joint responsibility for financing the activities of adult education.

Furthermore, I want to mention that children's and young people's right to culture should be given special attention according to the national cultural policy goals. The Swedish Arts Council and the Swedish Arts Grants Committee distribute state grants to a number of organizations, practitioners, and organizers within the music field. Furthermore, development grants are also distributed to municipalities that are the primary bodies for the municipal music school, where, among other things, music education for children and young people is conducted.

The Government has earlier this year granted Kulturskolerådet 1 million kronor for a pilot project for digital remote and distance teaching, among other purposes to enable more people to participate in the culture school's activities.

Finally, I want to highlight the important education conducted at our universities and colleges, including the Royal College of Music, and also the state grants that the Swedish National Agency for Higher Vocational Education awards to certain arts and culture educations.

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

Mats Berglund (MP)

Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister for the answer.

The original heading of my interpellation to the Minister for Education was "The Rehearsal Room Crisis". However, I think one should be a bit cautious with the word crisis. I also do not know if it is exactly a crisis for the rehearsal rooms that Johan Pehrson and his government have caused. But it is bad. "The Rehearsal Room Crisis" is the heading of the appeal in film format that a large part of the Swedish music elite, together with a number of young, yet unestablished musicians, are directing against the government's cuts in support for student unions.

60,000 Swedes play in bands and use the study associations' rehearsal rooms. Now the study associations themselves estimate that a third, 20,000 people, mostly young, will lose their rehearsal room. Parallel to this, cuts are being made to the state support for the culture school, and the support for the folk high schools is being eroded through missing adjustments.

It is not only the very foundation of the Swedish musical miracle that is being threatened. With the government's collective policy on the cultural area and for civil society, the entire glue that holds society together is starting to crumble. Meeting places are disappearing, and civil society is shrinking.

This is happening at a time when liberal democracy is retreating strongly and rapidly all over the world. It is happening in all continents. In the USA, democracy is crumbling in real-time before our eyes right now. In Europe, we see how right-wing populism has spread. Also in Sweden, democratic institutions are being dismantled. The formerly liberal party cooperates with a right-wing populist party in a government position.

We have a need for more culture and more education. The study associations are one of the most powerful democratic infrastructures we have in Sweden and the Scandinavian countries. In the study associations, the thresholds to knowledge and participation are lowered. They reach out across the entire country, even to the rural areas and the small towns. But it is also just there, in the rural areas and in smaller towns, where the government's cuts hit the hardest. They leave people, young and old, in the lurch, without premises and without culture, and democracy retreats.

Furthermore, Madam Speaker, we have war in our vicinity. I had the privilege of meeting the Ukrainian artist Hamlet Zinkivskyi here in the Riksdag a couple of months ago. He has been tasked by his military commanders to continue his artistic work instead of contributing weapons to the Ukrainian defense. Many of my other contacts with Ukraine confirm the picture of how incredibly important the vibrant cultural life is for Ukraine right now – for the total defense and for the Ukrainian people. Performances and concerts are sold out. The enemy knows this and directs its weapons toward the cultural life's infrastructure.

In Sweden, the armed defense is growing at a rapid pace. The total defense is keeping up to some extent. But cultural life is retreating significantly in the Tidöregering's budgets. This results, for example, in music houses being closed down and 20,000 young musicians losing their rehearsal space.

In my interpellation, I asked four questions. I actually do not believe I received an answer to any of them in the Minister's first response. The Minister for Education said nothing about how he views the situation for rehearsal spaces and music houses. I received no answer on whether the government intends to conduct a consequence analysis of the cuts to folk education. The Minister said nothing about measures to strengthen the free music life or if it could be expected to be more money for rehearsal spaces and music houses. Instead, I received answers to a number of questions I did not ask, for example, regarding the reduced state subsidy to the culture school. The Minister is welcome to return with answers to my questions in his next statement.

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

Catarina Deremar (C)

Madam Speaker! I also want to take this opportunity in this debate to emphasize the importance of free and voluntary folk education. I would also like to compare the rehearsal space crisis – if we are to use the word crisis, but in any case the closure that is occurring of a large number of rehearsal spaces around the country – with what if we were to put the word sports facilities in front of those words.

Every young person has the right to a good, free and meaningful leisure time. It can only lead to positive things if one fills their leisure time with something good and something that creates community with others. If one were to imagine that we were to draw a lot of lines over the word sports facilities on the map of Sweden, it would cause an outcry. We cannot imagine such a thing.

Now, not all children and young people want to engage in football, hockey, or whatever sport it may be, but they have an interest in culture. Here, a structure is needed so that they can both operate in that environment and be allowed to develop.

Then study associations are an immensely important institution in our society. This applies in particular if we look around throughout the entire country. Study associations have an infrastructure. For the time being, they remain in every municipality. They also have an infrastructure for the activities they have. Getting a paintbrush in hand or a guitar can truly make a difference.

The nice thing about study associations and comrade circles, which is what it actually is about, is that there is a structure. I have to take responsibility for ensuring that we are at least three people meeting at least three times with three study hours. I also need to lay out a plan for my study circle activities, which means that one actually makes progress in the activities.

It is clear that not everyone becomes a recognized musician by attending a study circle when they are young. It is far from all football players who become elite athletes. I would like us to take a small look at how it is to be equal for those youths and children who actually want to devote themselves to culture and perhaps not just sports. The important thing is that one does something meaningful.

I also want to ask the Minister how the infrastructure for culture in the whole country is viewed. How are we going to be able to replace this if it is the case that the rehearsal rooms actually disappear?

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

Lawen Redar (S)

Madam Speaker! Daltorpsskolan in Hässelby gård in western Stockholm had stood vacant for a few years in 1994. It was a group of rather maladjusted youths from Tensta, Vällingby, and Hässelby who requested a premises to be in. Today, it would not even come to mind that a group of maladjusted youths should be given the enormous freedom to be in a premises with total freedom. But thank goodness, society was a bit different back then.

For a rent of zero kronor, the youths were given keys to the premises. With the combination of study associations and youth leaders, who were supposed to have some oversight, what was created became a large music studio and a rehearsal room. Half a year later, Studio 165 was built. The rest is actually a piece of Swedish music history or a musical chapter.

From the rehearsal rooms came voices and music that no one had heard before. It was Ajo, Ken Ring, Big Fred, Blues and Houman. It was rap, hiphop, music and lyrics. It was young voices from the fringes of society.

Then came Feven, the first female Swedish rapper who dominated the scenes. Her goal, of course, was to bring home the first Grammisen to the concrete house in Rinkeby, and that is exactly what happened. There were many of us who watched the Grammisen gala on the TV screen at home and who just screamed at the top of our lungs when she stood there and gave her speech.

We who grew up in the western suburbs of Stockholm all know the story of the rehearsal space 165 in Hässelby gård. The misfit youths actually became our idols. If they could stand on stage, so could we. If Feven could win a Grammis, maybe we young girls could too.

Not everyone perhaps took the path of music. Some others took on other types of social tasks. I want to assert that music and rehearsal rooms, these meeting places, are about building communities.

It is about creating societies built on trust. Young people who may not be entirely adapted to norms must still be given a certain form of responsibility somewhere, together with other social actors, and build something that becomes greater.

But as society looks today, Studiefrämjandet in Västerås and Vuxenskolan in Norrköping have closed their rehearsal rooms. Folkuniversitetet's music house in Malmö will soon be shut down. Umeå's largest and oldest music and rehearsal room, Musikhuset in Umedalen, is forced to close. The situation was so bad in Luleå's music house that it would have been forced to close, but the municipality stepped in and financed it instead.

The reduction of half a billion to the study associations occurring over three years corresponds to one-third of the study associations' annual state subsidy. Next in line are now Gothenburg, Borås, Karlskoga, Kristianstad, Falun and Linköping, which are also closing their music houses and rehearsal rooms one after another.

One can argue that such cuts should be made by reducing other things. But we all know that the major costs for folkbildningen primarily concern staff and, specifically, premises. It is precisely for that reason that this type of activity is the first to be forced into closure.

I know that it is a matter of importance for the Tidö parties to speak warmly about Swedish music exports in many debates. We are one of the world's largest music exporters. Therefore, it is a good approach when it is now said that the creative industries should constitute an important part of the strategic Swedish export.

But the fact is that opportunities must also be created to create new music in Swedish society. Technology enables it. New creative technical solutions will also enable it. But artistic merit is created in encounters between people.

I still hope that the Minister for Education now understands that the Swedish musical miracle is under great and serious threat due to the massive closure of music venues.

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

Kristina Axén Olin (M)

Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister for Education, for an opportunity for an interesting debate!

For us Moderates and the government parties, children's and youth's right to culture is something extremely prioritized. Therefore, we changed the state's cultural policy goal a number of years ago and replaced one that the S-government had had for decades, that the state's cultural policy goal was to be a counterweight to the commercialism prevailing within culture.

Instead, a bourgeois government introduced the cultural policy goal in the state that children's and youth's culture should be prioritized. It was something that S, V and MP had not previously done. The government fulfills it. For us, children's and young people's culture is important.

We also have another matter that we consider to be extremely important. It is that we are to have an arm's length distance. It is true that we are reducing the budget for the study associations from 1.8 billion to 1.3 billion over a three-year period. That is true. But how the study associations choose to prioritize in their content, we do not believe we as politicians should interfere in.

I can personally regret that some study associations choose to phase out rehearsal rooms. But for example, Medborgarskolan does not do that. There, they are now building a cultural center in Malmö. It is some study associations that choose to phase out rehearsal rooms.

Madam Speaker! SCB's new figures arrived not so long ago. It is about what the student unions are doing for something. One can, for example, read the following about a course: Do you want to become a master of popcorn and how to pop it in a pot? Then this course is for you. Learn the technique from the ground up, and gild your Friday nights with warm, freshly popped popcorn completely without additives.

It is very good that everyone wants to learn new things. But one must also remember that a majority of the participants in the study associations are retirees – highly educated retirees. Unfortunately, Madam Speaker, the smallest group participating in study circles are young people between 20 and 24 years old. It is a challenge.

One can also observe that participation in study circles has almost halved after covid. It was over 1 million Swedes who participated in study circles before covid, and now it is 606,000. We also have two fewer study associations because one study association chose to phase out its activities itself, while the study association Ibn Rushd chose to shut down its activities because it lost the permit to conduct study association activities. This means that we have two fewer study associations and also over 400,000 fewer participants than a few years ago.

How Studieförbunden i samverkan can spend money on recording a campaign film and also engage a number of artists in a protest and scare people by saying that there will be 20,000 people who lose their rehearsal rooms is, for me, Madam Speaker, completely incomprehensible.

I do not understand how one calculates. I have read the tables from SCB time and again. Unless it is highly educated retirees who use the rehearsal rooms, the figures do not add up.

That is not to say, Madam Speaker, that it is not regrettable if the study halls disappear. I think that too, and I am sure Johan Pehrson, the Minister for Education, does as well. But we hold the line when it comes to our parties not interfering in what activities the student unions have. It is not our task to do so.

With those words, Madam Speaker, I agree with Education Minister Johan Pehrson's answer to the interpellation.

(Applause)

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

Magnus Manhammar (S)

Madam Speaker! Minister for Education! We must speak about what is being lost. We must speak about music – not about Spotify playlists or hits on the radio, but about the music that begins in a worn-out room with poor acoustics and a broken amplifier where four teenagers with shaky self-esteem play together for the first time and feel that they belong together.

Neo, 14, who lives in Huddinge, put it best when he found out that the rehearsal space in Huddinge was being threatened. This is what Neo said: If there hadn't been a rehearsal space, I don't know what I would have been doing. This is an activity that maybe means we don't do things that are worse, like doing drugs or ending up in the wrong circles.

This is a reality for thousands of young people. The rehearsal spaces matter. According to Studieförbunden i samverkan, a third of all rehearsal spaces across Sweden are now threatened due to the closures of folkbildningen. It concerns 20,000 people, primarily young people, who will lose their creative spaces. It is young people like Neo, whom I just mentioned.

Tobias Forge from the band Ghost has said: My career started just with 20 years of rehearsals in various rehearsal studio complexes that were all run with state funds. The world-famous songwriter Shellback from Blekinge, where I come from, has said: In the rehearsal studio I began to learn the most important thing a songwriter can learn – to collaborate with others. Karin Dreijer, who is also world-famous, from the band The Knife has said: Not all kids like sports. There must be places where one can engage with music.

Our beloved Per Gessle reminds us that his background and his experience would never have come about without the rehearsal rooms. Per Gessle says: In the rehearsal room, I met Marie Fredriksson. Without the rehearsal room, there would have been no Gyllene tider, and there would have been no Roxette either.

This question is not just about premises. It is about the future, it is about justice, and it is about development. Music is not just notes; it is actually also therapy. It is belonging, it is education, and it is democracy.

Jill Johnson has commented, among other things in connection with the appeal highlighting the problems with the rehearsal rooms being closed down. She says: We cannot shut down everything that has to do with culture in our country.

We often talk about the Swedish music miracle and how Sweden, as a small country, has created music that touches the whole world. But the music miracle, as said, did not begin in a radio studio; it began in a rehearsal room. If we tear down the foundation for the next generation, it is not just a room that falls silent, but we risk losing some of the best things we have shown the world.

Madam Speaker! Minister for Education! This is not a cultural issue on the sidelines. This is a societal issue in the very heart of young people's lives, in the very heart of Sweden.

Madam Speaker! Minister for Education! The fact is that rehearsal rooms are currently being closed down all over our country. It is a direct consequence of the government's policy. I would like to know what the Minister for Education intends to do regarding this.

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

Utbildningsministern Johan Pehrson (L)

Madam Speaker! I fully understand that the adjustment of the grant – the government continues to provide a substantial grant for the state part every year – requires reprioritization and focus within the study associations.

The gradual reduction that has been announced means that the study associations will have the conditions to adapt, focus, and prioritize their activities. But even after this, there will still be a large government grant which, together with other co-financing, makes it possible to carry out much of the educational activity, for example with a focus on culture, which is so crucial.

I also think that one must remember to broaden the whole thing from the perspective that education does not only take place in study associations. Education takes place, for example, in school and through the existence of libraries. That young people read is extremely important so that they can then move forward and perhaps participate in an activity that study associations organize. Here, the government is making large investments for education.

Sweden is upheld by hundreds of thousands of associations. These are associations where people gather to collectively carry out activities that form a backbone in our society and in our democracy, where the state can do its part and the individual can do theirs. But in associations, we also do things together that are meaningful, whether we work with the Red Cross or in a football club or if we participate in a popcorn course – not because I want to turn this debate into some Minecraft performance in a Swedish cinema where the popcorn flies back and forth in the auditorium. I do not know if you have seen that film.

The government thinks it is important that young people do not just behave and pass school. It is a tough time. We also want young people to have a meaningful leisure time in order to be able to find themselves and get answers as to who one is, where one is headed, or where one wants to be. In that case, it is important that one does things together.

That is why the government is introducing the so-called leisure card, which is not only aimed at sports clubs but which is also fully possible to use for cultural activities. In this way, we can give young people, regardless of the family's finances, the conditions to activate themselves in, for example, culture, music or literature through, for instance, study associations that offer these activities, by their own means and through their own choice.

These resources are important as a reinforcement for the individual. It is about giving young people a good chance for the future, for empowerment, and to be able to realize both small and large dreams. But above all, it is about being able to do things together with others. That is what is so important when one builds and creates the conditions for a strong society.

As has been said before, it is important for the government that we do not talk about exactly what the study associations shall do. But they must prioritize and use the resources they receive from the state, from regions, from municipalities and from other funders and, together with the conditions that, for example, the leisure card provides, create a good operation that is in the spirit of popular education.

(Applause)

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

Mats Berglund (MP)

Madam Speaker! I have previously warned against the suspicion cast upon culture and popular education that happens quite often. Moderate Party Kristina Axén Olins speech was a rather clear example of that, with popcorn courses and other things.

I want to return to the Minister's answer to the interpellation. He says there that every budget is about priorities and that the proposal for these substantial cuts to the state grants to the student unions had been preceded by careful considerations within the Government Offices.

That is not true. I naturally have no insight into the trade-offs made within the budget department in the Government Offices. But that the Tidö Government in step one divides the budget item for the Folkbildningsrådet into two separate parts, the folk high schools for one and the study associations for the other, in step two works out a plan over the mandate period in three downward steps to cut one-third of the support to the study associations during the mandate period, and in step three implements this plan and in three clear jerks pulls the rug out from under 20,000 people and their rehearsal rooms is not a budget issue. It is an ideological issue, and the minister knows that. It is an issue that, for example, the Sverigedemokraterna have pushed for a long time with ideological arguments and which the Liberalerna have now bought and, as it seems, welcome with open arms.

But it is not only these 20,000 young musicians who have been affected. Nor is that the purpose of the cuts. In the report Consequences of the Cuts, the Folkbildningsrådet shows how both the study associations and the folk high schools have been hit hard by cuts and eroded appropriations. At the folk high schools, the number of teachers has decreased by 14 percent. Almost all folk high schools have been affected. Two-thirds of the schools have reduced staff. The 100 million that the government most recently provided were appreciated but far from sufficient.

Studieförbunden still exist in all of Sweden's municipalities. But a number of smaller towns, especially in rural areas, have had to be left, and now there is a risk that entire municipalities will be left without any of the actors of folkbildning. Of course, we should not interfere in what folkbildning itself does. But the government must take responsibility and conduct its own analysis of its own savings and the dismantling of studieförbunden.

The Sweden Democrats, as I mentioned earlier, have a party decision that all support for student unions shall be removed. It is an important decision for your largest coalition partner, Johan Pehrson. Several times we have now also heard that the folk high schools shall be the next step.

This is, therefore, not a budget issue. It is a question of what kind of society we want and whether we want a vibrant cultural life in the entire country or not. In a broader perspective, it is about whether Sweden should follow large parts of the rest of the world in the movement away from democracy or whether Sweden should be one of the exceptions that actually exist and instead engage in and strengthen democracy.

An example of such an exception is Estonia, my mother's homeland. Ukraine also was on its way to strengthening its democracy until the Russian invasion. However, such examples are quite rare. That path requires efforts that this government has absolutely shown no will whatsoever to undertake.

It is about reducing surveillance and the control society, strengthening trust, finding balance points, of course, and strengthening freedom of speech and freedom of association. It is about not being so afraid of shadows but daring to believe in the positive power in culture. The importance of culture, the importance of popular education and the importance of the study associations' activities must not become just a lip service.

The Minister is welcome to return with a clearer answer to my questions. We would have needed sharp measures already in the spring budget, but they were missing. Will this government come forward with any concrete measures to reverse the negative trend for the rehearsal spaces, for the student unions, and for the cultural life across Sweden?

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

Catarina Deremar (C)

Madam Speaker! I must also thank the Minister for the answer to the interpellation and Mats for having raised it. It has, quite clearly, attracted several speakers who feel that this is an important issue.

I want to start by commenting on this with arm's length distance. I began by talking about free and voluntary folk education. Arm's length distance to study associations is a self-evident matter. Otherwise, it becomes neither free nor voluntary. There is no doubt on that point.

Despite this, what is happening is regrettable. It may sound like the reduction is very little money in a state budget, but for the local study association and its branches and premises, it matters. And those who are affected are still the young people who have come there.

I think we should be very happy that we have study associations that also engage older people who continue to educate themselves in different ways and together with others.

The Minister answers very well at the end. I have no objection to that people concentrate on reading and prioritize that we should learn to read in a good way. In his answer, the Minister also mentions, for example, the Royal College of Music when it comes to music. But I still want to ask how the Minister intends to solve this. Are there any intentions at all to look at what is happening in the country, if we take a whole-country perspective on this? It is the smaller towns and the countryside that will be affected.

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

Lawen Redar (S)

Madam Speaker! Unlike Member Kristina Axén Olin, I actually intend to advocate for the country's pensioners and their right to meet and conduct study circles and folk education activities. Just as much, I intend to advocate for children and young people's right to a meaningful leisure time and the right to be able to attend a rehearsal room anywhere in the country they live.

Member of Parliament Kristina Axén Olin can visit Filipstad, where I was quite recently. There, the pensioners' association is now sitting in the library, the public library, to carry out their popular activities. They sit there and knit together, and they say to me: Here we might not be able to brew our coffee, but we have a very pleasant public librarian in Beshir who serves us the coffee.

Then one can ask the question: Why are these pensioners not instead sitting in someone's kitchen and carrying out the activities? Well, it is because the democratic cultural policy has left a perspective based on that culture, meaningful activities, and philosophy and literature discussions should take place in some exclusive salon apartment or in someone's kitchen. Education is something that should be available to everyone. It requires its infrastructure, that there are meeting places where all associations can meet and be.

The synergies this creates are truly fantastic. When the elderly get to meet the young, or when the young get to meet minority associations, something happens in the conversations and discussions.

In this parliament, there are quite a few members who have grown up in some form of study association and who have not been educated to become politicians. Through the study associations, they learned the democratic tools, such as being able to lead annual meetings, and can thus take on responsibility, develop in conversation and debate, and perhaps take on even greater assignments. In this way, we have revitalized the association culture, which is very Swedish and very unique.

The Minister for Folkbildning argues that the cut is about priorities. We may have completely different views on economic policy, but I still want to ask the question: With knowledge of what is now happening, will the Liberals stop further cuts when we see these consequences?

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

Magnus Manhammar (S)

Madam Speaker! A third of the rehearsal spaces are threatened, and that is what this debate is about. In many ways, it is about the lives and futures of many young people. Precisely in the environments that the rehearsal spaces provide, we often reach many young people who have not found their way anywhere else.

Chris Adam from Smash Into Pieces has said that if there is one thing he believes in, it is that it is good to spend money on activating exactly young people. And, Madam Speaker, this contribution is a plea for cooperation with the government. We Social Democrats want to pursue a policy where we stop the cuts. We want study associations and rehearsal rooms not to be shut down. We want to secure the future of music in Sweden, and we want to secure activities for children and young people. If the government has the intention to stop the cuts, we would be very happy. I would like to hear an answer from the Minister.

Lars Winnerbäck has said that every "problem child" who picks up a guitar and is given access to a rehearsal room is a win for society. Right now, we see that the consequence of the cuts is that rehearsal rooms are being closed down all over Sweden.

I know how much music meant to me during my upbringing, for my friends, and for many others. I do not think Sweden should become a country that falls silent. The world has seen that Sweden is a country where you can start in a basement and become something great.

Sometimes a song can save a life, and sometimes a future begins with just one chord.

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

Utbildningsministern Johan Pehrson (L)

Madam Speaker! I thank you for many fine poetic contributions. I am not reviewing myself, but I am thinking of the other contributions from the debaters.

I want to be clear that I also spent a lot of time in music venues when I was young. I have cleaned study association ceramics rooms. There was grime on all the walls after the courses – even more so as the semester progressed. I have myself been a study circle leader over the years.

Studieförbunden are an important activity. They play a major role, and that is why the state continues to provide strong support. I also want to remind in this debate of the unpleasant things that came out a few years ago when it clearly emerged how the system was abused in a way it was not intended for. For me as a liberal, it doesn't matter if I go crazy over HVB-homes being run in a dirty way, if studieförbund abuse taxpayers' money, or if LSS-activities do not function as intended. We will ensure that they are used in the right way and in an efficient way.

This is the background as to why the government safeguards broad popular education. It is about 4 billion. That we separate the folk high schools and the study associations does not mean that it is time to advance any conspiracy theory. I address Mats Berglund, Madam Speaker, when I say this. It is about distinguishing that the folk high schools have a role and that the study associations have another role. Both are important and can play a major role for popular education, but they are separated in terms of support from the state.

One effect of the National Audit Office's review is that there is now increased supervision and more control. It will continue. I think it is important that when resources are provided so that a troubled kid can pick up the guitar, to quote Lars Winnerbäck, the resources should go exactly there. There I see the leisure card as an important addition. Not least children from socioeconomically less privileged backgrounds receive stronger support to have a meaningful leisure time.

First, children must attend school all day and learn to read, count, and write. It is the foundation for all education, for all democracy, and for the entire civil society. It is the very foundation for the nation's continued existence to learn to read, count, and write, and the government has chosen to prioritize this. With the leisure card, an opportunity is provided for young people to also seek further opportunities. I agree with what has been said earlier, namely that not everyone can become a football player. That is hardly desirable – if it weren't for Örebro SK's sake, where reinforcements are needed.

With the leisure card, conditions are provided to use the resources to break a mental ice in the worst case, to come up with something sensible to do, to develop one's interest together with others and find something that can become a lifelong joy, for example music. Therefore, the government chooses to focus on this.

I promise that I follow these questions as closely today as I followed the recordings at Studio Kuling at home in Örebro when I was 14 years old.

(Applause)

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

Mats Berglund (MP)

Madam Speaker! The incidents that the Minister for Education spoke about actually happened six years ago. The student unions discovered them themselves and took action. But the discussion constantly recurs. That is what I mean by the casting of doubt. Please stop it!

The video "Replokalskrisen" is short and concise. Just as Magnus Manhammar told earlier, it contains a number of quotes. We hear Per Gessle tell about how Roxette was formed in a shared rehearsal room. E-type says that one is dismantling the foundation for Sweden's incredible musical successes. It will be noticed. So it continues.

Let me summarize: Johan Pehrson, Liberalerna, and the Tidö government have caused problems for the study associations. Rehearsal rooms and music house activities are being shut down across the country, not least in small towns. The very base of the Swedish musical miracle is being dismantled. It is not just a question of the study associations' activities, but the entire cultural life, premises, opportunities, the entire folk education, the cornerstone of Swedish democracy, and the folk high schools are affected. They are important activities for many, and they are absolutely crucial for the lives of many young people.

Some of them speak in the short film: This is the way to bring your friends together, to play together and to do something together. It is truly what one needs to live, says a girl in the film who plays in the band Påmperipåssa. It is one of many voices regarding the student unions and the rehearsal rooms.

I will shortly hold a seminar in the Riksdag. We have invited young people who will tell about how important it has been for them to take part in free and voluntary learning at various folk high schools. The Minister is, of course, warmly welcome at 13:00 in Mittpoolen. We have some here in the gallery who will participate. Everyone else is, of course, also welcome. In this debate, we will not get any concrete answers. The debate continues in Mittpoolen in just a moment.

(Applause)

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

Utbildningsministern Johan Pehrson (L)

Madam Speaker! I thank you for the invitation. Unfortunately, my everyday life is not quite suited for the wonderful opportunity to listen to all the interesting seminars in the Riksdag. But I assure the interpellor that I will also take part in what is said there.

I truly understand that the adjustment has consequences and involves tough and difficult reprioritizations of the operations. But the activities of the study associations are also changing, and I want to emphasize again that it is not only the study associations that are equal to Swedish civil society. They make an important contribution to education – to gather and channel. But in Sweden, there are hundreds of thousands of associations where culture, democracy, and interests are carried forward across generations. They are central, and part of that activity takes place within the study associations. Some is conducted in the libraries, and others are conducted in other places, for example local heritage societies, across our entire country.

I understand that it is a difficult time now, a time of change, but I also want to emphasize that the state chooses to prioritize these issues with 4 billion kronor. The government does this because the government considers it an important activity. Otherwise, it could be removed. It is an important activity, but even within this activity, priorities must be made. We choose to strengthen the vulnerable 14-year-old and the privileged 15-year-old, who now get a chance to decide for themselves how they want to use the resources for leisure time, for example to gain access to sports, outdoor life, or culture. I agree with the analysis that they are central to a society's continued existence.

A big thank you for a fine debate!

(Applause)

The interpellations debate was hereby concluded.

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