Week 36: The foreign minister resigns, accusations against Sida's director general and debate on climate policy

The budget statement on climate policy has been overshadowed by it sudden the resignation letter from Foreign Minister Tobias Billström, who has come to dominate debatten on the leader pages that timena week. In the discussions about the government's reform agenda for aidthe politics SvD has published two texts with criticism of Sida's performance reporting and information that previously general directorör Carin Jämtin will have made decisions in strid with the government's instructor.

The week began with debates about the government's and the Sweden Democrats' notification iin the autumn budget that they intend to reintroduce the reduction obligation for vehicle fuels, but also lower and in 2025 abolish the aviation tax.

- The government is really doing everything to sabotage Sweden's climate and environmental goals, notes Susanne Nyström Today's News leader page.

Nyström points out that, among others, Chalmers and KTH have pointed out in their advisory statements that a lowered Swedish climate ambition could cause water damage in other countries. In the debate about climate policy, the Entrepreneurs stand up for the government and the Sweden Democrats' policy in a post in Aftonbladet. They point out that climate investments abroad or large-scale trading of emissions rights can be more cost-effective than efforts at home and want to see a reform of the EU's emission targets.

The resignation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs

- Billström left as he came - with a bang, political commentator Tomas Ramberg reflects Today's news.

The unexpected notice of resignation that Billström published on X on Wednesday quickly overshadowed the debate on the autumn budget. There are many questions about what may have led to Billström's departure and who can be expected to replace him. According to Echo there must have been a long-term conflict between the government's coordination office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Of particular note is an alleged dispute over who would be appointed as the new cabinet secretary, which is believed to have been aSpiritlazy reason for Billström's resignation as his own name proposal for the post should not have been approved.

In an interview for Sveriges Radio Billström dismisses informationna that the departure must have been due to conflicts with the coordination office and the appointment of a new one cabinet secretary.that but rather a need to restart.

- It is clear that you have to think about what is left of your time in working life and what to do with that time, says Billström to Sveriges Radio.

Several debatters have during the week emphasized the importance of quickly filling the empty ministerial post in an uncertain global situation. The election in the USA, and the USA's unclear stance towards NATO and Ukraine are further reasons why "It is not time to give a young green boy a chance at the Foreign Ministry", typemean Linda Jerneck in one leader at Expressen.

On Tuesday, the prime minister will present the new government in his government statement. Since the resignation announcement, speculation about Billström's successor has characterized the news pages. Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard and Aid Minister Johan Forssell will return among them Aftonbladet's investigations. Forsell's state secretary Diana Janse, security adviser Henrik Landerholm and EU parliamentarian Tomas Tobé have also been noticed as potential candidates by Dagens Nyheter.

The state of aid policy

On Svenska Dagbladet's editorial page, Peter Wennblad reports on the state of aid policy in a series of articles. In the introductory text, he describes the reactions to a study from The expert group for development assistance analysis where Sida's performance report reviewed through a reduction in 12 examples of job-creating measures in the annual reports 2021 and 2022. Here you can Mon demonstrate that some of the results are not fair.

- Jämtin seems to have acted as a political activist in his role as apolitical head of authority, writes Peter Wennblad in his second text about the Swedish aid.

In the text, he describes events that will take place in the time between government declarations a 2022 where the government and the Sweden Democrats announced av his intention to reshape the aid, and the issuance of the regulatory letter that would guide the aid agency Sida's work in 2023. The then director general Carin Jämtin, former social democratic minister, is said to have signed new five-year agreements with Swedish civil society organizations, both before and after the government gave instructions to Sida not to enter into new long-term agreements. Wennblad believes this must have made work with the reform agenda more difficult.

At the same time, representatives of both think tank Fores and RFSL concern about the effects of the reform agenda on Express discussion page. They question whether the agency Sida can take over the work that is currently carried out by civil society.

- The knowledge that the partner organizations have acquired on the ground in countries where LGBTI persecution is at its greatest is very difficult to reproduce from an authority office, say Ulrica Schenström, Tawar Dabaghi and Elias Fjellander.