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A beggar on the streets of Stockholm in March 2013 (image for illustration). Fmlickr / Creative Commons / Sigfrid Lundberg

The small town of Eskilstuna, about a hundred kilometers west of Stockholm, has been talked about since August 1st. It has indeed introduced a compulsory license for people who want to beg in the street, and it costs 23 euros. Eight permits for begging have already been requested, but none have yet been assigned by the police, who are in charge of sorting the requests.

With our correspondent in Stockholm, Frédéric Faux

" We are Romanian. Bucharest. Our papers, we have them. The license to ask for money too, yes, yes. You want to buy us blueberries ? It's three euros ... "

These two women who are reaching out to a supermarket in Eskilstuna have already made their speeches in case of a possible control. They claim to have their license to beg, although none has yet been distributed, and they sell some berries picked in the forest, to show that they have another activity.

This permit would only concern 30 to 50 people, mainly Romanian women, exploited, who beg for their leaders. For those who dispute it, it is an attack on the freedom, and the generosity of each.

For Social Democrat Mayor Jimmy Jansson, the challenge is first to identify people in distress, and to launch a debate: " People who beg in Eskilstuna are not Swedish citizens, they do not right to our social assistance. So we come to a situation where they have no more resources. They are stuck in our system. They stay here, and ask for money. They can not get out of this situation. If you want to overcome this poverty, you have to do things that put these people in the right direction. That's why we do that. "

Since last December, and a decision of the Supreme Administrative Court, several Swedish municipalities have made an even more radical choice: that of prohibiting begging on their streets.