In February, the government announced that Mikael Ribbenvik’s appointment as director general of the Migration Agency will not be extended. He will therefore leave his post at the end of May.
One who reacted positively was SD member Björn Söder.
“Time to clean up Myndighetssverige. Away with asylum activists from Verket,” he wrote on Twitter.
The statement was met with sharp criticism from several quarters, including from Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard (M) who considered it “inappropriate”.
“It’s nonsense”
Ribbenvik has previously dismissed Söder’s accusation. In Agenda, he is asked what he thought when he saw the tweet.
– I thought it was nonsense, of course. Because it’s nonsense, he replies.
– When we are accused of being activists at the same time as we are accused of being heartless and brutal, it is clearly in the eye of the beholder.
He notes that the authority is subordinate to the government and has the task of implementing the government’s policy.
– We follow the law. If we make a mistake, we have the entire court system on top of us. Nevertheless, there will be this debate and it is more about politics than about how an authority should fulfill its mission, he says.
Ribbenvik: No systematic errors
In October reported The evening paper that several employees of the Swedish Migration Agency had expressed themselves critically on the agency’s intranet against the policy in the Tidö Agreement, which had then recently been concluded between the government and SD.
– In the coffee room you are allowed to think and say what you want, even at the Migration Agency, says Ribbenvik and then describes the intranet as a “digital coffee room”.
He emphasizes that freedom of opinion is important, as long as it does not affect the performance of duties.
– Those who work in the state are loyal civil servants. It is clear that there may be someone who has done something that goes against what should be done, but not systematically in any way, he says.