The Swedish Maritime Administration must save millions and plans to shut down two of five helicopter bases, decommission an icebreaker, and reduce fairway maintenance.
This reduces Sweden's defense readiness and affects sea and air rescue. The Social Democratic Party's defense policy spokesperson, Peter Hultqvist, was surprised by the news.
One should understand that this is not a reasonable development.
The Swedish Maritime Administration is now demanding, among other things, an additional 250 million per year and 35 billion over ten years for infrastructure investments. Infrastructure Minister Andreas Carlson (KD) has stated that the government will revisit the issue and analyze the budget basis.
This is not enough according to Hultqvist, who wants the cuts to be stopped.
The government should ensure that this decision does not need to be implemented and allocate extra funding, says Hultqvist, who notes that the Social Democratic Party is allocating an additional 300 million in its budget to the Swedish Maritime Administration.
Hultqvist, also chairman of the Riksdag's Defense Committee, will raise the issue at the next meeting.
We have a security situation now that is very special and very serious. We have a shadow fleet with Russian activity in the Baltic Sea and the risk of unforeseen events is high.
We need to retain the resources we have today.
