Anyone who is not a Swedish citizen should be denied access to book loans and other library services. This is proposed by the Swedish Democrats in a parliamentary motion, something that the Library magazine was the first to report on. According to the motion, citizens from other Nordic countries should continue to be able to borrow books.
"Some services should be linked to citizenship"- This is about the fact that we want to see libraries to a greater extent as part of what is well-being. And a basic principle is that general welfare is tax-financed. Then some services should also be linked to citizenship and not be available to anyone who may want to take part in them, says Aron Emilsson, Swedish Democrats' cultural policy spokesperson, to the Library magazine.
According to Minister of Culture Amanda Lind (MP), the proposal, as she puts it, is both unpleasant and strange.
"Unpleasant and strange"- We have people who have lived in Sweden for a long time who do not have citizenship and it seems very strange to deny them access to certain library services. And for all the newly arrived and asylum seekers, we know how incredibly important libraries are for learning the Swedish language and entering society, says Amanda Lind and continues:
- To start making a difference at all in different groups of people connected to the libraries is very remarkable.
The Swedish Democrats also suggest that libraries should not prioritize literature in languages other than Swedish and the official minority languages. This is because the group that does not have Swedish as their mother tongue has increased significantly, and that providing books in all the world's languages would mean huge costs for the libraries, according to the party.