This week host James Savage and regular panelist Richard Orange record the podcast from Almedalen, the annual politics fest in Visby on the Baltic island of Gotland.

They are joined for a lively politics conversation by Henrik Torehammar, a political commentator for the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper.

Almedalen is sometime criticised as an event for Sweden's elites, but how elitist can any event really be in what Torehammar calls a "bicycle monarchy" famed for its flat hierarchies?

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson's Moderate Party is edging towards a disastrous election if polls are to be believed. Can he pull a result out of the fire at the eleventh hour?

The opposition parties look poised to snatch power. But will some pretty major ideological differences act as a stumbling block for the Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson?

And what issues are likely to dominate in the run-up to the September election. Immigration? Climate? Or could the rise of AI make its presence felt on the campaign trail?

Here are links to some of the topics discussed in the episode:

• Why are Swedish politicians so silent on AI?
• Sweden Democrat leader takes aim at Social Democrats in key speech
• Sweden Democrats launch retro election campaign to make 'Sweden like Sweden again'
• More than half of voters think Sweden's government will lose election
• Stay on top of the Swedish election: How to follow The Local's coverage

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Earlier this year the Fair Transition campaign group tried to convince Swedish decision makers to introduce transitional rules for the citizenship reforms which came into force on June 6th.

Two months have now passed since the Swedish parliament voted against transitional rules by the smallest of margins after the far-right Sweden Democrats sent in two MPs who were supposed to be withheld from the vote.

So what now for the campaigners fighting on behalf of the 100,000 citizenship applicants waiting in the citizenship queue?

The Local’s editor Emma Löfgren caught up with the group's spokesman Patrick Gallen to find out more about Fair Transitions plans as they prepare to mount a legal challenge in Sweden's migration courts.

READ ALSO:

• Sweden Democrats accused of cheating to block transitional rules for citizenship

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This week we talk about the Swedish culture of long summer holidays and how to make the most of them.

Also: parliament has passed a law that will make it possible to revoke residence permits for “poor conduct”. Now that it has passed, will you live to regret that speeding fine?

Why is the government pressing ahead with plans for mandatory ‘language preschools’ for children who don’t speak good Swedish, despite an official investigator saying that the idea was legally and practically difficult, and possibly discriminatory?

And we look at how the government is finding it ever harder to get its agenda through parliament, as their plans to let 13 year olds go to jail were defeated.

Host James Savage is joined this week by panelists Mandy Pipher and Richard Orange.

Here are links to some of the topics discussed in the episode:

• Swedish parliament votes to revoke residency permits over 'poor conduct'

• Do I get a day off in Sweden at Midsummer?
• What's open and what's closed in Sweden during Midsummer?

• Sweden tightens residency rules, but opposition's challenge delays child detention bill
• Closed-doors agreement on Sweden's parliamentary pairing row collapses
• Swedish government to push ahead with mandatory language preschool despite legal warnings

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Become a member at https://www.thelocal.se/podcasts/podcast-offer?tpcc=padlock.

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