The government wants to be able to go around the Riksdag in peacetime and make laws on their own in times of "crises"It is said to be about preparedness – but resembles dangerous emergency laws that have historically led to abuse of power.
The government's proposal for emergency laws thus echoes disturbingly with history. It was precisely such "temporary powers" that enabled the Nazis to seize power in Germany in 1933 - after they were allowed into the government by conservative parties that believed they could control them. Even then, large parts of the right and capital chose to support right-wing extremism rather than social reforms in the hope of stability and power. Today, the pattern is repeated when the SD gains influence and emergency laws are discussed - in the name of "preparedness".
Democracy is not eroded by noise and commotion, but by “temporary solutions.” When the government itself decides when there is a crisis, it also gains the power to bypass democracy. We must say no – before it is too late.
Austerity policy leads to disaster
Austerity policies are often presented as necessary to “get the economy in order”. But in practice they function as a self-reinforcing dismantling of the commons. The public belt – tightened in budget after budget – creates imbalances on so many levels that the sustainability of the entire society is threatened. The problems do not arise in a vacuum. They are a consequence of priorities where budget ceilings, surplus targets and tax cuts for the richest are allowed to take precedence over people’s needs.
1. Economic inequality and welfare collapse
When the state steps in school, healthcare, elderly care, social services and security insurance creates both severe stress and a poorer quality of life. People are forced to compete for scarce resources. The increased pressure leads to mental illness, exhaustion and, in the long run, unemployment and poverty. Those who fall out of the system do not receive help – because the systems have already been cut. At the same time, the capital income of the richest is increasing. Sweden today has more billionaires per capita than almost any other country.
2. Social tensions and crime
Young people grow up in schools without enough teachers, in residential areas with neglected public spaces and without access to meaningful leisure. When society does not offer guidance and faith in the future, criminal networks a path to status and income. Car fires, shootings and drug dealing are not expressions of “evil” – they are symptoms of structural neglect. Society’s unwillingness to invest in preventive measures creates a breeding ground for organized crime.
3. The weakening of the rule of law and the spiral of the state of emergency
As social problems increase, the state responds not with investments – but with repressive measures: camera surveillance, anonymous witnesses, visitation zones and proposed states of emergency. But this is treating the fever without addressing the infection. Austerity policies are the disease itself. Every state of emergency undermines citizens’ trust and creates distrust in both politics and the legal system. This distrust in turn breeds more anxiety, which is then used as an argument for another state of emergency.
4. Collapsed infrastructure and everyday crisis
Trains are at a standstill. Roads are cracking. Healthcare workers are fleeing. The teacher crisis is deepening. Electricity and public transport are becoming more expensive. The blame is often placed on weather, demographics or external threats – but in reality it is a matter of decades of neglect of maintenance. The austerity measures are sabotaging public infrastructure – and making it more expensive for society in the long run.
5. The slow suffocation of democracy
When people see that their votes do not lead to improvements, voter turnout drops. When parties compete to see who is the most “responsible” in the sense of “don't bet anything", politics loses its meaning. It leaves room for populism, extremism and anti-democratic ideas. The trust gap widens between the people and the elite.
Conclusion: A self-reinforcing meltdown
Austerity policies are not only ineffective – they are actively destructive to society. They create a country where billionaires thrive, while public libraries are closed. A country where the state “cannot afford” to protect its most vulnerable – but pays dearly for surveillance, control and new prisons. A society where security is eroded, and where the solution to the insecurity you yourself have created is more repression.
Sweden does not need a state of emergency. Sweden needs the courage to invest in its own people. If we reverse the perspective – from austerity requirements to faith in the future – we can build a country where security is born from equality, not from fear.
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The bill talks about “crisis situations.” Government crises can also be considered such, i.e. when the Riksdag no longer supports the government. Should the government then be able to ignore the Riksdag?
Furthermore: the German Weimar constitution was fully valid even during Nazism. There was a paragraph there similar to the one proposed, and it was of course the government that decided when such a state of emergency should be assumed to apply. According to the Nazis, it applied all the time.
Exactly. Very clever!