[pengstrom]

Unfortunately, the current conservative/nationalistic government has been trying to get it shut down. They use the guide of "tough on crime" of course, but they have been opposing money for people of lesser means for a long, long time.

[froding]

Sure, this is true and I disagree with it. But an observer should note (and which was not mentioned in the article), that there has been scandal upon scandal of the funds being given out for these study circles ending up in Islamist or even foreign hands.

Studieförbund are great, but they have to properly track where the money goes - check receipts, do random inspections to see how many people are truly attending, etc.

[marviio]

My wife and her friends are all middle-class, doctors, lawyers etc. The have a book club and get tax money to buy theater tickets and cheese for their meetings. It's not tax money well spent in my book. They would have had the book club anyway. And all of them can easily pay for cheese themselves.

There are endless examples of fraud too. You just write down a meeting schedule and put in names of people and get money.

Another problem is the Islamistic "studieförbund" Ibn Rush who is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. They get a lot of tax money to promote their worldview.

[zx8080]

What do they spend taxpayers money for instead?

[geysersam]

Defence, police, tax incentives for driving and reduced tax on fossile fuels.

Many other things of course. But these are some of the areas where the difference is largest compared to the opposition.

[mediascreen]

> ...tax incentives for driving

That's such a weird misrepresentation. I would say they are for pausing the increases to already extreme taxes on gasoline, so people outside of cities can afford to drive to work.

(I have never owned a car and still sympathise)

[tapland]

And maintaining 0% property tax, interest deductions and lowered taxes on income from work.

Policies that are extremely popular with the average Swede who has a stable income, mortgage etc. But the left and right have both been shafting low income earners for quite a while now.