Mass churn among salaried employees in SD-controlled municipalities in Skåne

Eva Klang Vänerklint’s plan was to stay in Skåne for the rest of her life. But soon the moving load shifts from Hörby, where he worked until this spring as a social manager, to the new position as welfare and assistance manager in Mölndal.

He sees no reason to be silent about the cause.

– When SD assumed power, the boss’s resignation began. I became the member of the previous management team who stayed the longest. I am a basically positive person, but in the end I did not recognize myself, I was angry all the time. At the end of January I submitted my resignation, he says.

After the 2014 elections Sweden’s Democrats do not have a majority in any municipality. In 2018, the landscape changed: then the party became the largest of twelve municipalities, of which eleven are Scanian. It was very good at Hörby. Here, more than 35 percent of the more than 15,000 inhabitants voted for SD, which could take power through electoral cooperation with M.

From the beginning, the party had a scandal on its neck. It was revealed that the intended city councilor, group leader Stefan Borg, had spread right-wing extremism and homophobia on Facebook, and was forced to withdraw his candidacy (today he is a member of the city council and is chairman of the children’s committee and young people). Instead, the position went to the group’s deputy leader, Cecilia Bladh at Zito.

When the Sydsvenskan newspaper a year after the elections examined the resignation of the chief in Skåne, Hörby was the municipality that stood out the most. Here, 22 managers, more than 40 percent of those with personnel responsibilities in the municipality, had left their positions after SD assumed power.

Since then, more managers have left, including former social manager Eva Klang Vänerklint. She is one of several officials who accused the SD leadership of ignoring the facts and the knowledge base.

– As a municipal official, you are used to changing political leadership from time to time. The big difference with SD is that they have no tradition of leading a municipality. Along with that ignorance, it also turned out that there was a disregard for knowledge and a stubborn view of the excellence of one’s own conclusions. These were based on ideological foundations, which in decision-making often affected the ability to follow the law and often affected those of foreign descent, he says.

In the fall of 2020 it has Dissatisfaction among the other Hörby municipality administrators has increased. The origin is a derailed management conference at Örenäs Castle on the outskirts of Landskrona, which ends with two drunken senior managers bathing naked in a pool in front of shocked employees.

The head of the municipality, Lena Mårtensson Stenudd, who was hired after SD took power, does not initially believe that the incident should be investigated.

This eventually leads to the Hörby unions reporting the municipality to the Swedish Work Environment Authority. Along the same lines, 32 municipal administrators send a joint letter to the municipal board demanding the resignation of the municipal director. They accuse her of what can be described as a reign of terror where a culture of silence prevails and where many fear being subjected to reprisals.

On October 7, the day after the call for the executive director was announced, the municipal councilor Cecilia Bladh in Zito called a press conference to report that the municipal chief and her closest colleague have been fired pending an investigation. .

– We take the situation that has arisen very seriously. It is not enough to do an investigation from the conference, an independent investigation is also needed on the work environment and the supposed culture of silence. All employees should be able to feel safe in Hörby municipality, he says.

Bladh in Zito sidesteps the question of what responsibility it itself has for discontent among employees and does not want to comment on anything other than how the political leadership has acted on the matter of the events related to the management conference.

DN has contacted the mayor, who at the moment does not want to comment.

On political leadership In Hörby, the situation is calm, unlike with the local business community. Now concerns are spreading here that recent events will damage their operations.

Göran Sjöberg is the CEO of the centenary gardening company Hörby Bruk, one of the largest companies in the municipality.

– We have Hörby in our brand, in our company name, and the brand is our most important asset. As it is now, the municipality is doing everything possible to destroy it. It is completely unacceptable that we have a municipal management and a government that destroys in this way.

Outside the entrance of the Hörby town hall stands Carin Holst, one of 32 officials who signed the call for protest against the municipal director. After nine years in the service of the Hörby municipality, most recently as interim planning and development manager, he has just submitted his resignation documents.

– I have reached a limit where I can no longer bear it. For a long time we have had a culture that is not positive. When you are the face of the municipality towards the citizens, then you must be able to defend what you are obliged to do, and for me it is no longer possible, he says.

In a small conference room in the town hall, representatives of Hörby’s seven opposition parties have gathered for a joint press conference. They support the managers’ demands for the city director’s resignation and believe that what happened at the conference became the culmination of a lousy long-term personnel policy.

– I have never seen staff call me and cry during the 40 years that I have been a politician, says Anders Larsson (C).

One hour drive Hörby is the former stronghold of the Bromölla workers. Here, SD became the second largest in the last elections and until September 10, the party ruled in the minority with the support of M and KD.

Outside the traditional Böckmans pastry sits the Swedish Democrat Magnus Persson, member of the Riksdag and President of the City Council.

– Of course I’m disappointed. I think that some of my fellow party members gave up too easily and it is certainly a failure to have to seek help from other parties. But I do not buy what some say, that we have thrown in the towel. We still want to be part of the formation of a government with a large majority in the municipality, he says.

In August, SD announced that they no longer wanted to lead a minority government, that they had lost half of the votes in the municipality and therefore did not consider themselves capable of advancing their policy. Shortly thereafter, City Councilman Eric Berntsson (SD) resigned for personal reasons, and with him came three other prominent SD politicians who stepped down.

– The message came completely unexpected, like a bolt from nowhere. In that situation, we choose to leave all our chairmanships in the committees and go into opposition. Nor can we sit back and control a policy that we cannot influence, says Magnus Persson.

Now the municipality rises and the 12,000 inhabitants without a government for just over a month, in addition to a budget deficit of just over 25 million Swedish crowns.

The first vice president of the municipal board, Jenny Önnevik (S), is temporarily leading the work of the municipal board and has just come out of a seven-hour meeting at City Hall.

– Every day without government is a bad day and two months have passed since the municipal council resigned. When no one has a majority, there are many discussions and difficulties in reaching a decision, and that, of course, is very negative for the municipality, he says.

At present, no other party is willing to take the lead.

At the same time as setbacks hit SD in Hörby and Bromölla, the party also gained new Scanian lands during the tenure. In January 2020, Sweden’s Democrats took control of Bjuv, a traditional stronghold of S. Here, the party now rules in collaboration with M and a defected L member.

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The municipality of Bromölla has no government after the defection of the SD