Temperance lobby steps up its campaign against alcohol

Date: 12/12/1996

By Emily von Sydow

“Stop the alcohol culture of the EU. Swedish youth is adapting to European alcohol habits,” warned Margot Wallström.

In an article in the Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter, Stockholm's minister for social affairs recently summed up Swedish fears about a further liberalisation of the country's strict alcohol rules.

Union membership has already forced the dismantling of some of the old restrictive bastions, such as the state's monopoly of liquor imports.

Wallström's article was published the week after EU finance ministers decided to prolong Sweden's derogation from single market rules on the free movement of liquor and tobacco until mid 2000, when the issue is to be reviewed.

The Finns and the Danes accepted a deadline for the derogation of January 2004, with the possibility of an extension if the Swedes get a better deal in their review.

Swedish Finance Minister Erik Åsbrink has said he believes the derogation will eventually come to an end, but argues that the more time the government has to educate its citizens, the greater the gains in terms of public health.

The country's powerful temperance lobby still nurtures the hope that, when the time comes, the case for a permanent derogation will be strong.

Wallström's article was part of a huge campaign to defend Sweden's policy of regarding alcohol as a serious social problem. The government argues that the country's total consumption is among the lowest in Europe thanks to its restrictive policy, but ministers fear that the drinking culture of other EU member states risks spreading to the north. That, they say, would not mean a switch from aquavit to wine and beer, but adding wine and beer to the hard liquor.

Wallström has asked the European Commission for a comparative study of alcohol use and abuse in other member states. She believes it would show that the higher the alcohol consumption, the higher the rate of related diseases, violence and car accidents.

The experiences of a lurking social and economical disaster in the latter half of the 19th century, when industrialisation made aquavit more cheaply and widely accessible, is at the heart of the matter.

The temperance movement grew out of this struggle against widespread alcohol abuse and has some 300,000 active members in Sweden today. They belong to an élite of politically-conscious people, with members coming mainly from the Social Democrat, Liberal and Centre parties. These three parties have traditionally organised different 'people's movements' in Sweden, which have played an important role in education and social life outside the regular state system.

Not everybody in Sweden is happy with the temperance movement's dominance. But critics of its 'big brother' attitude come from a less-influential group of voters than those in the temperance lobby.