Kivik (Sweden). “Then it's really true, one face one race”. My friend has just returned from Milos in the Cyclades via Athens and reports of a happy and relaxed atmosphere as the storm raged on the financial markets. Economic journalist among the best known in Sweden, he does not hide a certain Lutheran surprise towards the way in which the Mediterranean peoples deal with difficulties, even tragedies. I've known him for too long and I know that, like me, he loves to argue without respecting political correctness. Yet, this time I take it badly. “No, we are not Greece,” I reply. "Of course not, you are older, your debt weighs much more", he replies without realizing that he is making the situation worse. “We don't need bailouts,” I retort. At this point he becomes serious: “Really? It seemed to me that the ECB had rushed to save you, violating the rule of independence from governments and risking creating inflation, in short, against two pillars of the treaty. We are out, but the monetary policy of Euroland touches us, and how”.
Touché. My friend is not alone in thinking so along the shores of the Baltic. In these days of chatting on windswept beaches (it was a horrible rainy summer and autumn is already beginning to feel) or in the long, clear evenings, in front of bottles of wine from all over the world (these beer people have now a convert and shares in all the virtues and vices of the neophytes), I listened to the opinions of journalists, public relations men, managers, entrepreneurs, diplomats, an economist next door who worked for a long time in Brussels. In summary, their opinion is that we are different from the Greeks because they have swept the dust under the rug, we have our heads in the sand. This story that Italy has handled better than the others, has never convinced and now finds its nemesis. You feel like making a distinction. The facts speak for themselves. The government forced to make an extraordinary maneuver a month after the ordinary one, the fiscal sting, the economy that does not grow and probably ends up in recession, the Treasury minister at risk of being fired, perhaps early elections. Italy is not Greece, but a face a race.
Of course, they are quick to judge that there are only nine million of them on a vast territory rich in resources. They don't have oil like their Norwegian neighbors, looked upon with envy and admiration. But 75% of electricity comes from nuclear power, an energy source that the people rejected in a referendum in the distant 1980, yet it is still there, increasingly opposed after the Fukushima accident, in the process of being overcome, but without haste. He says a lot about how things work in this country. Swedes don't make revolutions, they change without breaking. Consent is a must, but it never turns into a veto. We discuss, we ponder, we decide. Then it's done.
There is not much left of the social democratic model which is still heralded as the Scandinavian system. It was modified in the 90s, under the blows of a tremendous crisis. The crown collapsed in 1992 before the lira. A perfect storm banking crisis has erupted that is studied in textbooks. Followed by a three-year period of very harsh recession, during which per capita income fell so much that Italy in that period came close by several percentage points. The moderate government of Carl Bildt was defeated in the elections. The Social Democrats with Göran Persson (influenced by Tony Blair's New Labor) redesigned the social contract on which the country had been based since the 30s. Now Frederik Reinfeldt, who leads a centre-right coalition, continues in the same vein by adding some privatisation. When the 2008-2009 crisis erupted, Sweden too saw its GDP fall precipitously and employment fall with it. But in 2009 the economy took off like a spring with growth of 6% (it drops to 4,5% this year) while the unemployment rate returned from 10 to 7%. What neither the United States nor Germany has succeeded in doing. Miracle?
“We Protestants do not believe in indulgences and we have no saints to devote ourselves to,” my friends reply. “We tightened the belt, but we made it”. Pensions have been reformed since the mid-90s. Retirement starts at 65, seniority at 61, but you can work until 67. The system is flexible, divided into three levels: a minimum basic pension, a public supplementary pension and a private supplementary one (company, professional or a personal insurance fund). The indemnity is linked to the average salary received in one's working life and overall it can cover two-thirds.
“You are still privileged,” my friends reply. How to blame them? Even taking into account that families here have between two and three children, the labor market is very reactive and young people find work. Thus, it is easier to finance the pension system. The cuts in healthcare have created the greatest problems, also due to the rigidity of the state system which causes long waiting lists. In the Stockholm area where one fifth of the population is concentrated, for years there has been a transition to a mixed model, while pharmacies have been liberalized on a national scale. Public education has long since introduced the so-called free schools that David Cameron now wants to copy: institutes that function as private companies, but are not paid for; that is, the student has no additional fees. The central and local governments negotiate a quota each year. The rest is up to the principals and administrators to find and they mostly do it by forging ties with the economy at all levels (foundations, businesses, cultural associations).
As for union relations, the Swedes are amazed by all the can can on the changes decided by Fiat. At Volvo it works the same way. After all, Sweden's symbolic company has passed to the Chinese, with much regret and some grumbling, but no Neapolitan drama or Greek tragedies. Here the company contract is the norm. And many working conditions (breaks, hours) are regularly negotiated in the factory. Taxes remain very high, higher than in Italy, with a tax burden that exceeds half of income. People pay, even if no one is happy. There is black within physiological limits. Tycoons take refuge in Switzerland like Ingvar Kamprad the owner of Ikea among the richest men in the world. A behavior criticized, but in fact tolerated with that Nordic pharisaism that turns a blind eye as long as the rule doesn't change.
The major conflicts arise from immigration which represents a tenth of the population. For decades the French integrationist model has been followed. Now it doesn't work anymore. Muslim women go around covered. In the family the Koran applies and not Swedish law. Malmö's population is made up of 35-40% mainly Muslim immigrants. Passport control is back on the bridge that connects Copenhagen. A worrying wave of xenophobia is rising, fueling populist and far-right movements. Continuous tensions cause outbreaks of violence in ghettos such as Rosengård, famous for being the birthplace of Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
No Nordic paradise, then. My friends, after all, are not singers of lost innocence, but they say that they have made their sacrifices and they have borne fruit. The public budget is balanced, the balance of payments in strong surplus, productivity is high, the economy is integrated with the international cycle, the large Swedish groups have managed to penetrate China, India, developing countries and this give them a good buffer. In short, rigor and development can be reconciled. It is the message that, despite the enormous diversity, cultural and political even before economic, this remote but dynamic strip of Europe can teach the exhausted Mediterranean countries, weighed down by their history and spoiled by bad habits; public vices, of course, but, let's be honest, private ones too. Here at the café we hear people say: let's roll up our sleeves; we say: roll up your sleeves. Here the responsibility lies with each citizen; with us it is always someone else's.
