Sweden: Andersson in hot water over cleaner

Eight months before Sweden's next parliamentary elections, the country's new Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson has come under fire over a cleaner working at her home. According to press reports, the cleaner had immigrated illegally from Nicaragua and was working without a residence permit for a subcontractor of the cleaning company Andersson had hired. Has the country lost control?

Open/close all quotes
Dagens Nyheter (SE) /

An alarming loss of control

Dagens Nyheter is appalled:

“The woman did not even have the right to be in Sweden, yet she was in the prime minister's flat. Such a loss of control is a threat to society as a whole. ... The fact that people can just walk in and out of Sweden's head of government's home - after two Swedish politicians were murdered in recent history [prime minister Olof Palme in 1986 and foreign minister Anna Lindh in 2003] is definitely a matter that also concerns the head of government personally. ... Things cannot go on like this.”

Göteborgs-Posten (SE) /

Lax migration policy leads to abuse

Despite its openness to workers from abroad the country must abide by certain rules, warns Göteborgs-Posten:

“Undeclared work is particularly widespread in the cleaning industry. ... Sweden is one of the countries with the most liberal rules for labour migration. ... But any system that is too open will be exploited. It's not only highly-trained IT specialists who benefit, but also criminals who hire cheap labour from countries outside the EU. A free society does not thrive on naïve deregulation, but on a balance between rules and openness. This balance is currently lacking in Sweden.”