Radio Sweden's coverage of Swedish politics

The Green Party got a 2 percent lift in Sifo’s May poll, giving the party close to 11 percent support among likely voters.

The Red-Green block holds its lead against the center-right governing Alliance, 50.7 percent versus 41.6 percent.

The anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats is the only party in Parliament who wants to lower the legal limit for abortions from today’s 18 weeks to 12. Party leader Jimmie Åkesson defended the party’s stance on Swedish Radio’s Saturday interview segment.

The Chairman of the Culture Board in Malmö says he will file a police complaint against the center-right Moderate party in Malmo, for slander after they issued a press release branding him as a "Jew hater".

The Swedish government announced Thursday that part of the SEK 8 billion it is to receive in EU regional funds will go towards green investments. 

Problems with muscles and joints have long been the main cause of sick leave, yet mental illness has taken over the majority of cases. Sweden’s government wants to know why 40 percent of all patients on sick leave have psychiatric diagnoses. The Swedish Social Insurance Agency has been looking into this for months, but now it will examine what sick leave rules are based on - especially for those diagnosed with mental illness.

Sweden's indigenous Sami group goes to the polls for the Sami Parliament elections this Sunday. The body, which represents all people of Sami heritage in Sweden, has never before had so many people registered to vote.

The Social Democrats have called for a national congress on the teaching profession to turn around what they say is an acute situation for Sweden's schools.

The party says it wants to gather teacher's unions, colleges, municipalities, the Swedish Association of Independent Schools, and even the Minister of Education and representatives from the center-right parties.

The youth organization of the Center Party voted Friday to support the legalization of marijuana, reports Swedish Television news. Their main argument in favor of legalization is that the ban on the drug does not work.

"By controlled sales we can help more people and take away an important source of income for organized crime,” said Hanna Wagenius, the chair of the Center Party youth organization.

Making it cheaper for companies to hire younger workers has been a controversial issue - critics say it has no effect on youth unemployment, and Swedish Television has seen figures that may confirm this criticism.

The coach of Djurgården football club resigned, saying he had been threatened, and the prime minister held a snap press conference to underline the seriousness of the situation, But the police now say they will not charge three men who are accused of turning up during Djurgården training and threatening coach Magnus Pehrsson in person.

Lars Byström at Stockholm's police says to website Nyheter24 that they cannot prove that the three men threatened the coach.

Fans have been unhappy about the northern Stockholm club's losing streak.

Foreign Minister Carl Bildt is getting criticized for not backing a declaration calling for a ban on nuclear weapons at a recent UN conference. Nearly all of the other 60-odd countries at the conference backed the statement. But Bildt dismisses the criticism and says Sweden is serious about nuclear disarmament.

Sweden's eight party leaders went head-to-head Sunday night on Swedish Television's political debate that became especially heated when the politicians began to discuss jobs and profit-taking in the welfare sector.

The opposition Social Democrats have called for a special debate in Parliament one day after the Schools Inspectorate issued a report on the country's falling school results and increasing segregation among students.