Peter Kullgren wants hunting to qualify for wellness subsidies. Animal Rights Sweden is outraged—while the proposal is being interpreted as an attempt by the Tidö parties to win back hunters’ votes ahead of the election.
Minister of Rural Affairs Peter Kullgren (KD) wants hunting to be considered a wellness activity and thus be eligible for the wellness subsidy.
In a opinion piece in Svensk Jakt The minister writes that hunting involves many hours of hiking in nature and should therefore be considered a form of physical activity—just like horseback riding, golf, or skiing. He believes that the rules need to be modernized during the next term of office. The subsidy should apply to the activity itself, not to equipment such as firearms.
The proposal has drawn strong criticism from Djurens Rätt. The organization's campaign director Coral Ricote Lajusticia believes that the wellness allowance should not be used to normalize the killing of animals.
– It is not the government’s role to provide financial incentives for an ethically problematic leisure activity, She says.
Analysis: An attempt to win back the hunters' votes?
After the 2022 election, the Tidö parties promised to stand up for hunters and sport shooters. Then came the statements following the Risberg incident, in which the same government was criticized for attacking the hunting community and taking a tougher stance on gun ownership.
Now, with the election approaching, a proposal has been put forward that clearly favors hunters. Many therefore interpret Kullgren’s move as an attempt to repair the relationship and win back the trust—and the votes—of the country’s hunters.
Kullgren looks like a pig and is a pig; he has often shown that he is no friend of animals or nature, so this is just election-year pandering.
I agree. Besides, Svullot should go for quite a few runs.
Hunters are heartless murderers