Politics in Sweden: Sweden’s government enters trickier territory with begging ban

Sweden’s government on Monday kicked off work on the item on its to-do list over which it is perhaps most divided: a national ban on begging.

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In the hours running up to Monday’s press conference, MPs for the Liberal party were already reiterating their opposition.  
“The Tidö Agreement only means that an investigation into the ban on begging must be carried out,” Anna Starbrink, the party’s Stockholm MP, wrote on Facebook, she said of the government coalition’s post-election deal with the Sweden Democrats. “But there is no agreement to introduce such a ban.”
“I stand by my previous statement and will not contribute to the introduction of a begging ban. People in need cannot be forbidden to ask for help.” 

The party, the smallest in Sweden’s three-party coalition, is seriously divided over the prospect of a ban. At its regional congress last year, it voted to oppose one, and Jan Jönsson, the party’s leader on Stockholm city council, immediately praised Starbrink’s “important and clear” statement of the party’s position. 
All it requires is for three of the party’s 16 MPs to vote against a ban, should the government push one through, for the government to lose its majority, potentially allowing the opposition to inflict a rare parliamentary defeat.
So it’s no surprise that the instructions given to the chair of the begging inquiry appointed on Monday pointed in two separate directions.

The solution the government has found has been to delay the decision on whether to push ahead with a ban until after the inquiry delivers its conclusions next summer. 
The chair, Krister Thelin, has been asked to take a broad approach.
He should examine the various possible approaches to limiting begging, and look in depth at how well the current legal framework, which allows local municipalities to issue local regulations, is working, and should also propose other possible draft legislation, apart from or in addition to a ban, which could discourage begging. 
But he has also been asked, “whatever position he takes” on the question of a ban, to propose draft legislation for bringing one about. 
This kicks the big decision over whether to push for a ban out until next summer, when Thelin is due to deliver his conclusions. If the government decides not to risk a ban, it will have draft legislation ready and waiting for a less restrictive approach. If it manages to steamroller the Liberals yet again and decides to push one through, it will have draft legislation ready and waiting for that too. 
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Sweden’s justice minister Gunnar Strömmer defended what a journalist called this “double approach”, saying he thought it was “fairly traditional” for an inquiry to thoroughly analyse all the possibilties. 
The advantage of insisting that the chair present draft legislation for a ban, even if he concluded that a national ban was a bad idea, he said, was that “we will also have the foundations prepared to push forward with a national ban if that’s what the government ends up wanting to do”.

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Krister Thelin is a right-wing debater who has previously been both a judge and a Moderate Party state secretary (the title of the most senior political aide in a department), and who has in the past argued in favour of local over national begging bans. 
Jakob Olofsgård, party secretary for the Liberals, conceded that his party was divided on the issue. 
“We are not agreed on a national begging ban today,” he said. “All parties both have and should have discussions over difficult issues and this is one such issue.” 
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So will the begging ban be the issue where the government coalition’s so far impressive stability finally breaks down? 
It seems unlikely.
Begging is no longer such a burning issue for the public as it was a decade ago as the number of beggars outside Sweden’s supermarkets and cash machines has declined markedly since the Covid-19 pandemic, and also perhaps due to the near disappearance of cash in the country. 
It’s also far from certain that a ban would not pass through parliament, even if all 16 Liberal MPs opposed it. Although the opposition Left Party, Green Party and Centre Parties have all come out and said they oppose a ban, the Social Democrats so far have not. 
It’s far from clear whether the party will want to allow the Sweden Democrats and the government parties to attack it for blocking a begging ban in parliament in the run-up to the 2025 election. 
Politics in Sweden is The Local’s weekly analysis, guide or look ahead to what’s coming up in Swedish politics. Update your newsletter settings to receive it directly to your inbox. 

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In the hours running up to Monday’s press conference, MPs for the Liberal party were already reiterating their opposition.  
“The Tidö Agreement only means that an investigation into the ban on begging must be carried out,” Anna Starbrink, the party’s Stockholm MP, wrote on Facebook, she said of the government coalition’s post-election deal with the Sweden Democrats. “But there is no agreement to introduce such a ban.”
“I stand by my previous statement and will not contribute to the introduction of a begging ban. People in need cannot be forbidden to ask for help.” 

The party, the smallest in Sweden’s three-party coalition, is seriously divided over the prospect of a ban. At its regional congress last year, it voted to oppose one, and Jan Jönsson, the party’s leader on Stockholm city council, immediately praised Starbrink’s “important and clear” statement of the party’s position. 
All it requires is for three of the party’s 16 MPs to vote against a ban, should the government push one through, for the government to lose its majority, potentially allowing the opposition to inflict a rare parliamentary defeat.
So it’s no surprise that the instructions given to the chair of the begging inquiry appointed on Monday pointed in two separate directions.
The solution the government has found has been to delay the decision on whether to push ahead with a ban until after the inquiry delivers its conclusions next summer. 
The chair, Krister Thelin, has been asked to take a broad approach.
He should examine the various possible approaches to limiting begging, and look in depth at how well the current legal framework, which allows local municipalities to issue local regulations, is working, and should also propose other possible draft legislation, apart from or in addition to a ban, which could discourage begging. 
But he has also been asked, “whatever position he takes” on the question of a ban, to propose draft legislation for bringing one about. 
This kicks the big decision over whether to push for a ban out until next summer, when Thelin is due to deliver his conclusions. If the government decides not to risk a ban, it will have draft legislation ready and waiting for a less restrictive approach. If it manages to steamroller the Liberals yet again and decides to push one through, it will have draft legislation ready and waiting for that too. 
Sweden’s justice minister Gunnar Strömmer defended what a journalist called this “double approach”, saying he thought it was “fairly traditional” for an inquiry to thoroughly analyse all the possibilties. 
The advantage of insisting that the chair present draft legislation for a ban, even if he concluded that a national ban was a bad idea, he said, was that “we will also have the foundations prepared to push forward with a national ban if that’s what the government ends up wanting to do”.
Krister Thelin is a right-wing debater who has previously been both a judge and a Moderate Party state secretary (the title of the most senior political aide in a department), and who has in the past argued in favour of local over national begging bans. 
Jakob Olofsgård, party secretary for the Liberals, conceded that his party was divided on the issue. 
“We are not agreed on a national begging ban today,” he said. “All parties both have and should have discussions over difficult issues and this is one such issue.” 
So will the begging ban be the issue where the government coalition’s so far impressive stability finally breaks down? 
It seems unlikely.
Begging is no longer such a burning issue for the public as it was a decade ago as the number of beggars outside Sweden’s supermarkets and cash machines has declined markedly since the Covid-19 pandemic, and also perhaps due to the near disappearance of cash in the country. 
It’s also far from certain that a ban would not pass through parliament, even if all 16 Liberal MPs opposed it. Although the opposition Left Party, Green Party and Centre Parties have all come out and said they oppose a ban, the Social Democrats so far have not. 
It’s far from clear whether the party will want to allow the Sweden Democrats and the government parties to attack it for blocking a begging ban in parliament in the run-up to the 2025 election. 
Politics in Sweden is The Local’s weekly analysis, guide or look ahead to what’s coming up in Swedish politics. Update your newsletter settings to receive it directly to your inbox.