Culture of national minorities

The party programme gives the state a special task to strengthen national minorities' rights to cultural heritage, and explicitly links this to the history of wrongs Swedish authorities have subjected indigenous peoples and minorities to. Documenting Roma and Traveller settlements is precisely such a making visible of cultural heritage and historical background. The plan moreover demands that knowledge about today's racist structures and their historical background be built up and disseminated, which the counter-proposal concretely contributes to.

• strengthened minority rights to cultural heritagedecisive»de nationella minoriteternas rättigheter till identitet, språk, kulturarv« (party programme ↗)“national minorities' rights to identity, language, cultural heritage”
• historical wrongs against minorities»Den svenska staten har genom historien utsatt urfolk och nationella« (party programme ↗)“The Swedish state has through history subjected indigenous peoples and national”
• spread knowledge about racism's history»Sverige behöver överhuvudtaget bygga upp och sprida kunskap om« (party programme ↗)“Sweden needs to build up and spread knowledge about”
• culture against segregation and divides»Kulturen kan spegla samhället, motverka segregation och klasskillnader.« (2022 manifesto ↗)“Culture can reflect society, counter segregation and class differences.”

The plan establishes that cultural life shall reflect cultural diversity and that national minorities' possibilities to retain and develop their language and culture shall be championed and supported. A mandate to document and map Roma and Traveller settlements makes visible a history that is otherwise invisible, which follows from that commitment and from the party's anti-racist stance. This specific mandate is not explicitly mentioned.

• support for national minoritiesdecisive»hävda och stödja nationella minoriteters möjligheter att« (party programme ↗)“champion and support national minorities' possibilities to”
• cultural life reflects diversity»Kulturinstitutionerna och kulturlivet måste spegla den kulturella mångfalden i dagens« (party programme ↗)“Cultural institutions and cultural life must reflect the cultural diversity in today's”
• anti-racist stance»Socialdemokraterna är ett antirasistiskt parti« (party programme ↗)“The Social Democrats are an anti-racist party”
• living cultural life»Sverige ska ha ett levande, fritt och obundet kulturliv som både stärker samhörigheten och utmanar.« (2022 manifesto ↗)“Sweden shall have a living, free and independent cultural life that both strengthens unity and challenges.”

The plan takes no explicit position on what the committee actually decided — often because the committee's reason was procedural. The stance is derived and fully cited, but it does not show the party broke a commitment.

The plan commits to strengthening national minorities' rights and position, and Roma are explicitly counted as one of Sweden's five national minorities. Documenting and mapping Roma and Traveller settlements is precisely a way to make visible and preserve a minority's cultural heritage, which the plan sees as a shared heritage to steward. The plan does not however address the National Heritage Board's mission as such, which is why the stance is derived.

• strengthened minority rightsdecisive»stärka nationella minoriteters och urfolket samernas rättigheter« (2022 manifesto ↗)“strengthen national minorities' and the indigenous Sámi people's rights”
• minority cultures are strengthened»Sverige har fem nationella minoriteter: samer, romer, judar, sverigefinnar och tornedalingar. Deras särskilda ställning, med egen kultur och eget språk, måste respekteras och stärkas.« (party programme ↗)“Sweden has five national minorities: Sámi, Roma, Jews, Swedish Finns and Tornedalians. Their special status, with their own culture and language, must be respected and strengthened.”
• shared cultural heritage is stewarded»Kulturarvet är vårt gemensamma arv.« (party programme ↗)“Cultural heritage is our shared heritage.”

The plan takes no explicit position on what the committee actually decided — often because the committee's reason was procedural. The stance is derived and fully cited, but it does not show the party broke a commitment.

The election manifesto commits to strengthening minority protection and the status of minority languages, and the party programme emphasises the importance of nurturing and developing cultural heritage and spreading state cultural institutions' activities throughout the country. Documenting and mapping the settlements of Roma and Travellers is precisely such a visibility of a minority's history. The plan thus supports the counter-proposal's requirement, even though it does not address this specific assignment.

• strengthened minority protectiondecisive»Vi vill stärka bland annat äganderätten, diskrimineringsförbudet, minoritetsskyddet och minoritetsspråkens ställning« (2022 manifesto ↗)“We want to strengthen inter alia property rights, the anti-discrimination rule, minority protection and the status of minority languages”
• nurture cultural heritage»att vårda och utveckla ett kulturarv« (party programme ↗)“to nurture and develop a cultural heritage”
• counter structural racism»Diskriminering, strukturell rasism och intolerans, i alla dess former, ska motverkas.« (party programme ↗)“Discrimination, structural racism and intolerance, in all its forms, shall be countered.”
• culture throughout the country»Att tillhandahålla kultur i hela landet är en viktig utgångspunkt för Centerpartiet.« (2022 manifesto ↗)“Providing culture throughout the country is an important starting point for the Centre Party.”

The plan takes no explicit position on what the committee actually decided — often because the committee's reason was procedural. The stance is derived and fully cited, but it does not show the party broke a commitment.

The plan establishes that the status of Roma as a national minority shall be maintained and that the state shall support the culture of minorities. It also says that the cultural heritage in Sweden shall be kept accessible for future generations and that knowledge of minorities shall be disseminated. Mapping and documenting Roma and traveler settlements is precisely such a revelation of minority cultural heritage, why the plan speaks in favor of the counter-proposal's demands.

• status of national minoritiesdecisive»Samernas, sverigefinnarnas, tornedalingarnas, judarnas och romernas ställning som nationella minoriteter och samernas ställning som urfolk ska upprätthållas.« (party programme ↗)“The status of the Sami, Swedish Finns, Tornedalians, Jews and Roma as national minorities and the status of the Sami as indigenous people shall be maintained.”
• public support for minority culture»Det offentliga ska understödja ett språk-, kultur- och medieutbud med minoritetsspråksprofil.« (party programme ↗)“The state shall support a language, culture and media offering with a minority language profile.”
• cultural heritage shall be kept accessible»Det kulturarv som finns i Sverige är en del av mänsklighetens gemensamma kulturarv och ska hållas tillgängligt för kommande generationer.« (party programme ↗)“The cultural heritage that exists in Sweden is part of humanity's common cultural heritage and shall be kept accessible for future generations.”
• knowledge of minorities' history»Skolan ska ge alla elever kunskap om Sveriges urfolk, nationella minoriteter och minoritetsspråk.« (party programme ↗)“The school shall provide all students knowledge of Sweden's indigenous people, national minorities and minority languages.”

The plan takes no explicit position on what the committee actually decided — often because the committee's reason was procedural. The stance is derived and fully cited, but it does not show the party broke a commitment.

The party programme makes it a central public task to support minorities' own efforts to preserve and develop their culture, and explicitly mentions Roma among the national minorities to be granted linguistic and ethnic rights. Cultural policy shall moreover preserve cultural heritage, where public institutions such as museums have an important role. A mandate to document and map the settlements of Roma and Travellers is therefore in line with the plan.

• support for minorities' culturedecisive»Det är en central offentlig uppgift att stödja minoriteters egna insatser för att behålla och vidareutveckla« (party programme ↗)“It is a central public task to support minorities' own efforts to preserve and develop”
• rights for national minorities»tornedalingar, romer och judar språkliga och etniska« (party programme ↗)“Tornedalians, Roma and Jews linguistic and ethnic”
• steward cultural heritage»En god kulturpolitik måste sträva efter att ta tillvara det värdefulla kulturella arv« (party programme ↗)“A good cultural policy must strive to preserve the valuable cultural heritage”
• the role of museums for cultural heritage»offentliga institutioner som till exempel museer en viktig roll« (party programme ↗)“public institutions such as museums an important role”

The plan takes no explicit position on what the committee actually decided — often because the committee's reason was procedural. The stance is derived and fully cited, but it does not show the party broke a commitment.

The plan does not address national minorities' culture. The closest commitments are hard prioritisations of the state's core tasks and the party programme's warning that public funding and political ambitions in cultural policy constitute a risk, combined with the individual being asserted against collective identities. Based on these principles, the plan does not support a special agency mandate of the kind the counter-proposal requires.

• hard prioritisationsdecisive»De stora behoven inom rättsväsendet, försvaret och välfärden ställer stora krav på prioriteringar under åren som kommer.« (2022 manifesto ↗)“Large needs within the justice system, defence and welfare place great demands on prioritisations in the years to come.”
• political cultural mandates are a risk»offentlig finansiering och politiska ambitioner utgör en risk.« (party programme ↗)“public funding and political ambitions constitute a risk.”
• individual before collective»Denna identitetspolitikens kollektivism strider mot« (party programme ↗)“This identity politics' collectivism contradicts”

The election manifesto focuses cultural policy on protecting, cherishing and displaying Swedish culture and demands clear results for each public investment, not new state mapping assignments directed at individual groups. The party programme gives national minorities far-reaching cultural autonomy, but autonomy means freedom from assimilation demands rather than a commitment to publicly financed documentation of their settlements. The plan therefore does not support the counter-proposal's demand for a special assignment to the National Heritage Board.

• Swedish culture in focusdecisive»Sverigedemokraterna vill värna, vårda och visa svensk kultur.« (2022 manifesto ↗)“The Sweden Democrats want to protect, cherish and display Swedish culture.”
• cohesion around Swedish identity»Skapa sammanhållning kring den svenska kulturen och den nationella identiteten« (2022 manifesto ↗)“Create cohesion around Swedish culture and national identity”
• results requirement for public investments»Begära tydliga resultat för varje offentlig satsning« (2022 manifesto ↗)“Demand clear results for each public investment”
• minorities' cultural autonomy»ges långtgående kulturell autonomi« (party programme ↗)“given far-reaching cultural autonomy”

The plan takes no explicit position on what the committee actually decided — often because the committee's reason was procedural. The stance is derived and fully cited, but it does not show the party broke a commitment.