First presented on September 2 by the conservative culture minister, Parisa Liljestrand, the Swedish kulturkanon (“cultural canon”) has continued to spark debate. The eclectic list features 109 items selected by two groups of government-appointed panels − including everything from Pippi Longstocking by writer Astrid Lindgren to The Seventh Seal by filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, to the kingdom’s constitutional laws, the European Convention on Human Rights, Ikea, the Nobel Prize and parental leave.

The goal of the center-right conservative Swedish government, which has been allied with the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD) since the fall of 2022, is to establish a “common frame of reference” for the country’s residents, both Swedish-born and immigrants. “This project aims to foster inclusion, not to exclude, but to enable more people to take part in a community that, for many, remains closed,” said the minister, who would like to see the cultural canon taught in schools. Yet it remains unclear how the government intends to use this inventory, reminiscent of a “Prévert list” (a reference to the eclectic poetry of French writer Jacques Prévert), to promote the integration of newcomers in a country plagued by social and educational segregation.

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