focus shifted. “Now the policy changes are about trying to get people who are already here with residency permits to leave.” The government aims to repatriate poorly integrated or out-of-work migrants. The migration ministry boasts that more people are returning to countries such as Iraq and Somalia than are arriving from them. Atervandring (repatriation) is a watchword for the SD. “We want a lot of people to leave,” says Ludvig Aspling, the party’s migration spokesman. “There’s no reason to have people here from other countries if they’re not contributing.” To that end the government is encouraging migrants to go. Since January refugees have been able to claim up to SKr350,000 ($36,000) to return to their country of origin—nine times what a similar scheme offers in Britain. Only 600 people a year are expected to take it. The SD argues this would increase if welfare benefits were trimmed. It wants to expand the scheme to naturalised citizens, too. A “good behaviour” law, passed last month, allows the government to deport migrants for infractions such as unpaid debts. It has tightened family- reunification rules and stopped issuing permanent residence to refugees. The SD also wants to downgrade those who already hold this status to temporary residence. A chunk of voters likes these plans. But as migration has dropped, the SD’s popularity has remained stuck at around 20%. The party’s main issue is losing its salience. Last year just 23% of Swedes named integration as one of their biggest concerns, compared with 54% in 2015, according to surveys by the University of Gothenburg’s SOM Institute. That could help the Social Democrats, who struggle to convince voters they are tough on migration. For the right, this shift has made politics awkward. Last month public outrage caused the government to ease rules that had led to the deportation of teenagers who grew up in Sweden. Business groups have begun complaining that they cannot get foreign talent. The Liberal Party, part of Mr Kristersson’s coalition, opposes the SD’s push to revoke permanent residency.
Some voters who tolerated the SD’s rougher edges when migration was a bigger worry may find them harder to ignore today. On July 5th Richard Jomshof, a senior SD politician, said: “It is no more strange to hate Islam than it is to hate national socialism”. Some fear that talk like this risks emboldening ugly extremes (something the SD strenuously denies). Populist-right parties across Europe face a challenge of staying relevant even as rates of migration slow. Many will be watching this election to see if the SD’s pivot—to trying to remove migrants who have already arrived—will be as popular with voters as the previous wave of anti-immigrant policies. ■ To stay on top of the biggest European stories, sign up to Café Europa, our weekly subscriber-only newsletter. This article was downloaded by zlibrary from https://www.economist.com//europe/2026/07/16/sweden-squashed-migration-the- populist-right-wants-to-go-further
Opening the border between Spain and Gibraltar The deal offers hope for a more pragmatic relationship between Britain and Europe July 16th 2026 NOWADAYS IT IS commonplace to build walls between countries. But this week a barrier came down. Amid popular celebration, at midnight on July 14th border controls ceased between Gibraltar, a self-governing British sovereign territory, and Spain. Under a treaty signed the same day between the European Union and Britain, demolition of the police and customs posts at the border has started. “The last wall in continental Europe has fallen,” said Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s prime minister, as he visited the site. The treaty marks a tidying up of the mess left by Brexit. And in a region of strategic importance, in sight of the Moroccan coast, optimists hope it may herald a new era of defence co-operation between two NATO allies.
With just 40,000 people crammed into narrow strips of land beneath its towering Rock, Gibraltar depends on Spain for many things, including more than 10,000 workers who cross from the town of La Línea each day. Many Gibraltarians have second homes in Spain. Not surprisingly, 96% of Gibraltarians voted to remain in the EU because Brexit implied a hard border. That “would have been catastrophic not just for us but also for the Spanish side”, says John Isola, president of the Gibraltar Chamber of Commerce. Under the treaty, whose 1,000-plus pages took more than five years to negotiate, Gibraltar has become a de facto part of the EU’s border-free Schengen area. Non-Gibraltarian passengers arriving at its airport, whose only flights are from Britain, will have their passports checked by Spanish police. Fabian Picardo, Gibraltar’s long-serving chief minister, calls the arrangement “fluidity”, rather than freedom of movement, since citizens of Schengen countries will not have an automatic right of residence in the territory. Gibraltar is also joining the EU’s customs union for goods. It has agreed to European standards and European taxation: having been a tax haven, it will now apply a transaction tax of 15%, rising to 17% by 2028 on goods sold in the territory. It will also set excise duties within six percentage points of Spain’s. The £10 whisky bottles in Gibraltar’s liquor stores will be no more. Spain has long resented Britain’s control of Gibraltar, acquired in 1713, and its naval base. The treaty parks the dispute over sovereignty in favour of co- operation. “Removing the border was essential for this region to prosper,” says Juan Franco, the mayor of La Línea. Although the area includes the port of Algeciras, across the bay from Gibraltar, it is poorer than most of Spain. The hope is that stability offered by the treaty will attract investment. The region’s poor communications are an obstacle, laments Jesús Verdú of the University of Cádiz. The single-track railway to Algeciras remains closed after landslides last winter. But Gibraltar’s airport might now attract flights from across Europe. Some among Spain’s conservative opposition dislike the treaty and think their country lost an opportunity to assert co-sovereignty. But past efforts to coerce Gibraltar, including General Franco’s closure of the border in 1969, only reinforced its separate identity as “Mediterranean British”, as locals
say. If the Spanish right wins a general election due next year, as seems likely, “there might be a change in rhetoric, but that doesn’t have to mean a change on the ground”, says Mr Picardo. Importantly, some hope that as well as resolving unfinished Brexit business, the treaty might be a harbinger of a pragmatic reset between Britain and Europe. ■ To stay on top of the biggest European stories, sign up to Café Europa, our weekly subscriber-only newsletter. This article was downloaded by zlibrary from https://www.economist.com//europe/2026/07/16/opening-the-border-between-spain-and- gibraltar
Why Berlin’s airport is still completely hopeless Blame passengers, lobbying, history and geography July 16th 2026 What is it with Berlin and airports? First came Tempelhof, once a repository for Nazi megalomania, later the site of the Berlin airlift, an early cold-war drama, and now a vast and unusual city park. Then it was Tegel, a charming spot adored by locals but bursting at the seams by the end of its life. Finally came the tragicomedy of Berlin Brandenburg Airport, or ber. It opened in 2020, nine years late, €5bn over budget and a homage to Germany’s mishandling of megaprojects. That should have been that. But locals flocking to ber as the summer holidays began last week may still have felt short-changed. The airport currently has flights to just five long-haul destinations. Heathrow has around 100; even Warsaw has close to 20. Passengers flying beyond Europe must
usually transfer elsewhere. “Berlin doesn’t have a capital-city airport,” said Tim Clark, president of Emirates, during a visit last month. “It’s a really sad situation.” Germany’s most populous city remains the only big European capital without a home-based long-haul airline. And attempts to entice the likes of Emirates to ber have been grounded by lobbying by Frankfurt-based Lufthansa, Germany’s biggest airline, which says its Gulf rivals are unfairly subsidised. Berlin’s champions regard this as protectionist tosh, but have lost the argument. Worse, passenger numbers at ber last year were one-quarter down on the total at Berlin’s airports before the pandemic. Budget airlines have slashed flights. In April Ryanair said it would close its operating base at the airport, calling it “the worst-recovering major gateway in Europe”. Lufthansa has expanded its Frankfurt and Munich hubs, but hesitated in Berlin, blaming its fees and taxes. ber posts vast losses. Geography and history may simply have overwhelmed the city. German airlines were banned from flying to West Berlin during the cold war, letting Frankfurt and Munich become hubs. Germany’s industrial heartland is in its south; the densest population is in the west. Stranded far from other industrial or commercial centres, Berlin does not have the catchment area of its rivals and struggles to attract corporate custom. “When they moved the capital from Bonn to Berlin, they should have moved the airport from Frankfurt too“, jokes Cord Schellenberg, a consultant. That would have been a flight of fancy.■ To stay on top of the biggest European stories, sign up to Café Europa, our weekly subscriber-only newsletter. This article was downloaded by zlibrary from https://www.economist.com//europe/2026/07/16/why-berlins-airport-is-still- completely-hopeless
In praise of Scandinavia’s risky and dirty playgrounds Kids stand to gain from a few bumps, bruises and mud-splatters July 16th 2026 A visitor to the playground at Valbyparken, a green expanse in Copenhagen, is in for three surprises. The first is that the sprawling public children’s park is built on what was once a rubbish tip for the Danish capital. The second is the free coffee on offer for harried parents. But perhaps the most unexpected is the eagerness of the playground’s staff to hand out knives to children. Or axes, if they prefer. Or even, for tots bored with mere weaponry, some fire- starting equipment. Off you go, kids, and do be careful (oh and parents please keep an eye on them). Sprogs of an age that in most countries would barely be allowed onto a swing unattended scamper away to whittle sticks and soon imagine themselves carving their own magic wand, or the oar of a Viking longship.