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Le Monde
Le Monde
2 Mar 2024


Images Le Monde.fr

A video has caused some Swedish people to cringe: Couldn't Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson have avoided such clichés? As he prepared to host Emmanuel Macron, who had been invited to Stockholm by King Carl XVI Gustaf for a two-day state visit on January 30 and 31, Kristersson posted a short clip on Instagram: "Dear President Macron, I'm so looking forward to welcoming you to Sweden. But first, let me introduce you to some Swedish things and behaviors," he said, seated at a table with a cup of coffee and a cinnamon bun. He continued: "In Sweden, we have a saying: 'Det finns inget dåligt väder, bara dåliga kläder.'"

In English: "There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing." Everyone in Sweden knows this adage, which is so often repeated by parents who want to convince their children to go out whatever the weather. It's also a mantra repeated to foreigners who have moved to the kingdom, to help them better understand the customs of this small country where the temperature rarely exceeds 20°C.

Illuminated by large windows, the long corridor linking the smaller and larger sections of the Snickarbacken kindergarten in Lund, in the south of the country, is a perfect showcase for this mindset. On the walls, on both sides of this corridor which overlooks two playgrounds – both very muddy on this rainy February day – children's outdoor clothes hung to dry: Polar fleece jackets, waterproof pants and brightly-colored overalls, covered in dried mud. On the floor sat padded boots and shoes. On a shelf above, boxes of gloves, hats and scarves.

At the end of the corridor, teacher Cecilia Ekdahl opened a door into a small room where a dryer was blowing. This is where the teachers would hang up the wettest clothes between two outings. All this set-up was because at Snickarbacken, as with all kindergartens in Sweden, children play outside every day, rain or shine. With only one exception: "When it's really cold, as was the case at the beginning of January, for example, with days that felt like -20°C, they stay indoors," explained headmistress Anna Lagerholm.

For the children and the warmly-clad teaching staff alike, however, these outings are indispensable, noted Ekdahl: "They need to get fresh air and burn off some energy. It's also good for their motor skills." As for the parents, "they wouldn't understand if we told them we'd been indoors all day" – even if some of them grimace when they come to collect their toddlers in the evening and find them covered in mud from head to toe. In terms of logistics, everyone has their own strategy: Some children have a change of clothes and switch between two laundry cycles; others go to school in the same mucky state the next day, without anyone being shocked by it.

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