Response to interpellation 2024/25:610 on the responsible authority for the follow-up of minority policy
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
1 M considers that the government's management of minority policy needs to become clearer and that the county administrative boards lack competence for national assignments 1 2 3. 2 3 M wants to strengthen coordination and follow-up by moving the responsibility from the county administrative board to MUCF. 4 3 M argues that previous governments have written reports but have not acted 4 3. 5 6 7 S argues that MUCF lacks competence and that the minority organizations are unanimously against the move 5 6 7. 5 7 S claims that the government wants to override the minority organizations and that an action plan is missing 5 7. 3 M intends to consider the issue and is working on preparing it 3.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Kulturministern Parisa Liljestrand (M)
Madam Speaker! Mirja Räihä has asked me what the reason is for a change of the monitoring authority for minority policy and whether I intend to carry out the plan despite the opposition from the national minorities.
The question of which authority should be responsible for the coordination and follow-up of the minority policy has been the subject of several investigations. In the final report from the Investigation on the follow-up of the minority policy (SOU 2020:27), it was noted, among other things, that the government's management of the minority policy needs to become clearer and that the possibility of achieving the management that is required is judged to be very limited within the county administrative board structure.
The investigation met with a large number of actors during the course of the work, including representatives for the national minorities. Many testified about structural and other obstacles and challenges that hinder the implementation of minority policy. The Government has continued to work on the issue, and as part of this, the Government Offices held a consultation meeting with representatives for the national minorities for the purpose of, among other things, obtaining their views on the Agency for Youth and Civil Society Issues as the responsible monitoring authority.
The Government is keen that the follow-up of the minority policy should contribute to a more effective and purposeful governance of the minority policy. A continued dialogue with the national minorities on this and other issues within the framework of the work with the minority policy is therefore central.
The Government will return to the issue of the responsible authority for the follow-up and coordination of the minority policy.
Mirja Räihä (S)
Madam Speaker! I want to begin by thanking the Minister for Culture for the answer, even though it was rather brief.
It is true that there is an investigation that was commissioned by the previous government, which among other things concerns which authority should be the follow-up authority instead of Länsstyrelsen Stockholm.
It needs to be said that the investigator proposes that Isof should be the follow-up authority. Given the responsibility that Isof has had, with language centers for four of the five minority languages, one can believe that the investigator's proposal could improve the follow-up work. Isof may therefore sound right, but those who participated in the consultation saw risks with it – risks that are connected to this year's budget.
Those who participated in the consultation considered that it is not the right time for this right now because the appropriations to Isof were delayed and ultimately decreased. The appropriations are also not permanent. A large part of the staff were notified of termination due to lack of work, and Isof was also forced to lay off employees.
The government does not seem to want to follow up on the investigation, but instead, it was suggested that the Agency for Youth and Civil Society Issues should be the follow-up authority for minority policy. All 22 minority organizations were against this proposal.
It is true that the department has held consultations with representatives of the minority groups. It was held on March 26 this year, and 22 organizations from the five minority groups participated in the consultation. The issue that was addressed was to change the follow-up authority from Länsstyrelsen Stockholm to MUCF in Växjö.
Madam Speaker! The consultation was unanimously against the transfer of agency responsibility. The participants considered that MUCF will not be able to be the engine that can drive the issues or develop minority policy in the long term. The participants found it difficult to believe that the agency will be able to follow up on the rights of minorities when it comes to both social and school legislation.
At the same time, it was expressed that the County Administrative Board of Stockholm has developed as a follow-up authority and now understands the needs of minorities much better.
The participants in the consultation criticized the proposal harshly. The Government received criticism for wanting to discuss organization despite not having a structured minority policy and also not having goals for the policy. It was, as one participant expressed it, the wrong questions in the wrong order.
The State Secretary who was present assured that the Ministry of Culture will take the views into account. But when the final image in the presentation appeared after a long discussion, it stated: Next step – mandate to MUCF and the County Administrative Board to prepare the move. Here, all minority groups obviously felt that they run the risk of being completely overridden.
The Minister for Culture has answered the question regarding what the reason is. I understand that the investigation commissioned by the previous government is an important part of this discussion and an answer as to what the reason is.
However, I have not received an answer to my second question, the one that the national minorities need an answer to: Does the Minister intend to override all minority organizations and give the assignment to MUCF?
Kulturministern Parisa Liljestrand (M)
Madam Speaker! Let us begin by going back and looking at this issue from a slightly longer historical perspective. Then we can state that, just as the member was touching upon, during several previous governments – not least during the previous S- and MP-led government – there have been both communications to the Riksdag and reasons to look more closely at this issue.
Several different investigations have been carried out and reports have been produced, and virtually all reports have stated that more coordination, more development, and more follow-up of minority policy are needed. It needs to be strengthened, and it has been observed that even the agency structure for this needs to be strengthened. This was observed in the letter Nystart for a strengthened minority policy but also in the result of that, i.e., the report Högre växel i minoritetspolitiken.
Since then, there has naturally been a dispute over where this should be located, because it has been established that the county administrative boards do not have the competence and because the government, in the collective governance, has stated that the county administrative boards should not have that type of national mandate. They have other tasks, and thus one should try to relieve the county administrative boards of this type of national mandate when there are agencies that have the competence to handle it.
One proposal was, just as the member was touching upon, to use Isof. There was opposition to that, and the government has taken note of it. We have looked at other agencies, and what is on the table now is MUCF.
MUCF is the authority that handles this type of issue and also has certain competence in this type of issue. Then, I am aware that MUCF itself has pointed out that it will be necessary to strengthen competence in order to be able to take on this task. It is part of the work that we are doing now as we prepare this.
No decision has been made yet, but we are doing this according to all the rules of the art. We assess the pros and cons. We try to include all different perspectives in order to be able to make a decision that is as wise as possible for the future.
Mirja Räihä (S)
Madam Speaker! It is clear that one needs to strengthen the follow-up of the minority policy. But in a situation where all groups are against the proposal that the Ministry of Culture submitted at the consultation, it sounds a bit far-fetched that one should look at it.
MUCF has been asked to conduct its own investigation regarding the transfer of minority issues to the agency. Their response is that they neither understand the issues nor have the competence when it comes to minority legislation.
The minority groups themselves describe the situation as the entire sea being in turmoil and want to at least await the Swedish National Audit Office's report on the effectiveness of minority work in Sweden. It will arrive at the beginning of the summer and can be guiding when it comes to the organization of minority work and how it should best be followed up.
The whole sea is stormy is the right expression for how even I experience the government's minority policy after all the contacts with the minority groups that I have had now.
What has happened so far and which is perceived as very difficult is the reduction of funds to the language centers, the reduction of funds to the county administrative boards' work with supporting municipalities and regions regarding preschool and elderly care in the administrative municipalities, and the reduction of funds to national organizations. One example is the Swedish-Finns' delegation, whose grant has been reduced by 44 percent in this year's budget.
Furthermore, the funds for the Nordic Language Centre for Sámi, Sámi Giellagáldu, have been withdrawn. In this way, the Sámi Parliament is forced to finance that part and forgo other Sámi cultural initiatives. Additionally, the government's view on the Consultation Act when it concerns the Sámi population and their right to consultation in matters affecting them is somewhat deficient. There is now a referral to the Committee on the Constitution.
The government has also appointed an investigator who compares Sami people with stamp collectors and people from Torne Valley with bandy enthusiasts when it comes to their interest in being available in the work of producing a cultural canon. These observations are unfortunately made in the light of public scrutiny, so it is truly a storm of all proportions at the same time as different organizations try to find a way to be active in a very uncertain time.
I have even received emails from something I didn't even know existed, Förbundet Skogsfinnars Intressen i Sverige, which is strongly opposed to placing the follow-up questions with MUCF.
I asked two simple questions in my interpellation: What is the reason for a change of the follow-up authority? And does the Minister for Culture intend to carry out the plan despite the opposition from the national minorities?
The opposition is truly massive when 22 organizations try to put their foot down. And as I said, I also received an email from the forest Finns' association.
Madam Speaker! The Minister for Culture has answered the question regarding the reason but still not the question of whether the government is prepared to override 22 minority organizations.
One can ask one further question: Is the government prepared to, before a decision is made, await the Riksrevisionen's report on the effectiveness of the minority work?
Kulturministern Parisa Liljestrand (M)
Madam Speaker! Let me then be very clear: It was, therefore, the member's own party and previous governments that pushed forward these issues and also the reports and communications that exist on this.
What we are doing now is to follow the report, which states that more coordination and more follow-up are needed in minority policy. This is something that the current government is addressing and looking further into.
No decisions have been made yet. A number of consultations have been held within the framework of the annual consultations where I meet with the minorities, but a special consultation was also held on March 26 regarding exactly this.
Regarding the financing of this – I will not debate the entire minority policy, Madam Speaker, as I thought we were touching on a subject here – has the government added funds to the budget. We have added 8 million kronor for 2025, and it is estimated that an equal amount of money will be allocated for both 2026 and 2027 to work on precisely the strengthening of coordination and follow-up of the minority policy.
We are now doing what was started by the previous government, where the member's own party held the position of Prime Minister. I am therefore a little surprised that the member thinks this is going in such a wrong direction.
I am aware that the minority organizations do not think this should be moved to MUCF. They have made that clear in the consultations. That is why we have consultations. But this is quite clearly something that we need to turn over and work on. Previous governments have noted this, and so does this government. We will therefore also take the work further.
I look forward to further processing the issue and reaching some form of decision in the future.
Mirja Räihä (S)
Madam Speaker! Even though the questions concern the relocation of agencies, they need to be put into a context. They need to be put into the context that the minorities describe, namely that it is truly the entire sea that is in turmoil.
I know it was the previous government that commissioned the investigation. At the same time, one might still need to evaluate this from the perspective of the minority groups. In the consultation, they are clear that Isof is unthinkable because the government has split Isof to such an extent that they no longer dare to trust that authority. They also do not trust MUCF because they see that MUCF will have difficulty fulfilling this assignment.
At the same time, it is the case that, despite the desire to remove national assignments from the county administrative boards, the trust in the County Administrative Board in Stockholm County has increased. One feels that the County Administrative Board in Stockholm County understands the needs and has discussions with the minority groups.
One also feels: Let us talk about the relocation of authorities on the day there is once again an action plan for minority policy and goals for minority policy in Sweden! The experience right now is that this does not exist. That is what makes this the wrong question and the wrong order.
Kulturministern Parisa Liljestrand (M)
Mr. Speaker! This is significant for the Social Democrats and not least for the previous government: One appoints inquiries. One writes reports and deliberations. But then one does nothing. It won't turn out well no matter how one does it, one thinks, and then one does nothing instead. The result is that Sweden now pays the price, in very many areas.
When it comes to the administrative structure we have, report after report and letter after letter state that we need to develop both the follow-up and the work with minority policy. This cannot be done within the framework of the county administrative boards, where the mandate currently lies.
Then Isof has been discussed. I do not at all share the member's view that one would now not want to place it at Isof because Isof has a smaller budget to work with. It was very clear in the referral outcome that several instances hesitated to move these tasks to Isof out of consideration for the minority policy and the agency Isof's core mission. Therefore, one did not want to place it there. One also did not want to place it at MUCF because there were doubts regarding that.
We cannot continue like this. We cannot refrain from doing something. We cannot continue to do nothing because we cannot imagine how we are to make the work function in practice. Instead, it is a matter of strengthening competence and ensuring that we are able to do what we are actually tasked to do within minority policy. The mandate cannot remain with the county administrative boards, which is also noted in the report that the S-government has prepared.
Now we will deliberate on this. I am working on and preparing the matter. No decisions have been made. I intend to get back to you.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.