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The Old Country Newsletter – Vädervarning!
Your Weekly Newsletter from Sweden!
Philip Hannes
September 12, 2025
Good morning!
It’s Friday, September 12.
While drones are being shot down over neighboring Poland, and France seems to be sinking deeper into political turmoil, Sweden feels a bit like the dog in the burning house from the “This is fine” meme.
What happens in France may not stay in France — especially since it’s the EU’s second-largest economy, right behind Germany. When France and Germany row in the same direction, the European machinery moves along. But when one lags behind, everyone feels it.
And as for Russia’s provocation in the skies above Poland — why that makes northern Europe nervous is probably self-explanatory.
But hey, at least it’s Friday.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Philip & Hannes
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Word of the week
KRÄFTSKIVA [krehft-shee-vah]
crayfish party, typically taking place in August-September.
Flood Woes Raise Questions Over Weather Warnings
Swedish Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin has urged greater cybersecurity readiness after the large-scale ransomware attack. Attribution: Tom Samuelsson, via Wikimedia Commons
Sweden’s national weather agency is facing heat after issuing only its lowest-level alert ahead of a storm that unleashed massive flooding, wrecked infrastructure, and left communities stranded in the country’s north.
Over the weekend, torrential rains pummeled Västernorrland, dumping more than 70 millimeters of water in just 24 hours — roughly a full month’s worth of rain for the region. In some spots, totals topped 100 millimeters. The downpour washed away dozens of roads, flooded basements, and tore apart rail lines. At least two freight trains derailed near Örnsköldsvik when the embankment collapsed — one loaded with ammunition and lithium batteries, the other with timber — prompting an investigation by Sweden’s accident authority.
Tragically, a 75-year-old man died after his car was swallowed by a collapsing road in Härnösand. Meanwhile, about 20 hunters were stranded on Järvberget when their access road disappeared under the deluge. “It rained and thundered all night, so hard we thought the house would break apart,” one of them told reporters.
Despite the scale of destruction, the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) had issued only a yellow warning — the lowest on its three-tier scale. Yellow means “possible consequences,” while orange signals “serious” and red “very serious.” Meteorologists now say the decision will be carefully reviewed given the extent of the damage.
Postcard from the North
Storforsen (the Great Rapids) With an average flow of 187 m3/s, the rapids are one of the most voluminous in Europe. Attribution: Tetopa, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
In other news
🗳️ According to sources cited by Expressen, the Liberal Party (L) is close to shifting its stance and is expected to approve joining a government that includes the Sweden Democrats (SD) at its upcoming party congress. Labor Minister Johan Britz (L) is reportedly driving the strategy, lobbying local party branches to support deeper cooperation with SD. Meanwhile, the Centre Party is undergoing a similar internal debate about whether it could back a government that includes the Left Party (V).
❌ Sweden’s Minister for Civil Defense, Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M), was followed by pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Stockholm after leaving parliament, prompting a police investigation. Bohlin described the group as a “lynch mob” that prevented him from going home, forcing him to return to the parliament building instead. Police have launched a harassment investigation, while Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson condemned the incident as “mob behavior” and urged all parties to denounce such actions.
Watch the video by following the link above.
🦌 Swedish payment giant Klarna has confirmed a listing price of $40 per share ahead of its stock market debut on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The price exceeds the expected range of $35–37 per share, giving the company a valuation of about $15 billion (roughly 142 billion SEK). This places Klarna among the highest-valued IPOs of the year.
Sweden’s New Health Minister Collapses While Being Introduced
Attribution: , via Kristdemokraterna
Sweden’s new health minister, Elisabet Lann, had anything but a routine first day on the job—collapsing during her introductory press conference before bouncing back minutes later.
Lann, a senior member of the Christian Democrats (KD) and city commissioner in Gothenburg, was appointed Tuesday to replace Acko Ankarberg Johansson, who resigned just a day earlier. Health care is one of KD’s flagship issues, and Lann steps in at a time when Sweden’s system is under intense scrutiny. Despite hefty budget injections and repeated promises to shorten wait times, queues remain “illegally long” by EU standards.
But policy took a back seat when, moments after her speech, Lann fainted on stage and had to be helped out of the room. She returned shortly afterward, chalking it up to low blood sugar: “This wasn’t exactly an ordinary Tuesday,” she said with a smile. Party leader Ebba Busch rushed to her colleague’s aid and later downplayed the attention, saying she “just reacted.”
PM Kristersson, however, drew criticism for his more restrained response. While Busch knelt by Lann’s side, the prime minister stood back, later explaining that he trusted medical staff to handle the situation. Commentators and opposition voices called his reaction “detached,” arguing it reinforced an image of a leader sometimes slow to act in moments of crisis.
Lann is reportedly doing well, but her bigger challenge now lies ahead: convincing a skeptical public that this government can fix Sweden’s health-care woes.
Watch the video by following the link above.
Swede-ish Notes
Moltbærtinden and Breiflogtinden. Attribution: Simo Räsänen, via Wikimedia Commons
From Cod to Cash: Norway’s Glow-Up
This week, Norway went to the polls, and once again the Social Democrats came out on top, securing another term in government. Norway is a curious case. Back when it was under Swedish rule, it was seen as the poor little brother, resource-poor and easy for Stockholm to push around. When Norway gained independence in the early 1900s, its main export was fish, and few Swedes shed a tear at the separation. But history has a sense of irony: about fifty years later, oil began to flow from the North Sea, and today Norway ranks among the richest countries in the world on a per-capita basis.
What makes Norway stand out even more is not just its wealth, but how it has managed it. In many oil-rich nations, Venezuela, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iran, oil has often fueled corruption, instability, and authoritarianism. Norway chose another path. Its famous “oil fund,” now worth an astonishing $1.8 trillion, is not a private treasure chest but a national savings account. Profits from oil are invested globally, and only a tiny fraction can be spent each year, ensuring long-term stability for the country’s finances.
The results are visible: Norway consistently scores at the very top of the Human Development Index. People live long lives, enjoy excellent healthcare, have access to education, and generally report high levels of well-being. In a sense, Norway has built a kind of “social democracy on steroids.” While countries like Sweden have often struggled to finance generous welfare systems, leading to debates about schools, healthcare wait times, and infrastructure backlogs, Norway can dip into its oil fund to fill the gaps. This cushion makes a very expensive model of governance suddenly sustainable.
Maybe that’s why social democracy has worked, and continues to work, for Norway. Everyone gets something, and the wealthy hardly suffer in the process. But perhaps the real lesson is not the oil itself — it’s the rules and discipline that govern how this gift from the sea is used.