Already in 2020, the Swedish Tornedalingars Riksförbund - Tornionlaaksolaiset applied to participate in the review of the Reindeer Husbandry Act, but so far it has been rejected.
STR-T has been conducting intensive pressure work. The issue has even been raised to the Council of Europe, and now the lobbying work has borne fruit. Minister for Rural Affairs Peter Kullgren (KD) has appointed Executive Director Eva Kvist to the committee.
"This is a recognition that torne valleys, quakers and lantalaiset are strongly involved in the matter and it substantiates the argument we have made," she says in the press release.
"Strange to mix in others"
However, not everything is as happy about the decision.
- After all, there is an HD ruling, where the Girjas case is about the relationship between the state and the Sami villages. To then involve other people feels strange, says Matti Blind Berg, chairman of the Swedish Sami National Association, SSR, to SVT Sápmi.
He is generally critical of how the investigation into the Reindeer Husbandry Act is handled.
"I can't see the committee work being facilitated with more parties. It's already sprawling as it is," says Matti Blind Berg.
Not only about the Reindeer Husbandry Act
The Swedish Tornedalingars Riksförbund believes that the association has the right to influence.
"It's not just about the reindeer husbandry law and land rights. It is also about historiography where the very long-term existence of the Meänkieli minority in affected areas has been neglected, says Terje Raattamaa, vice president of STR-T.