Rally Sweden is scheduled to run as usual as the second round of the season in February. Since 2022, the winter rally has been held in the surroundings of the city of Umeå.
The rally was moved north from Värmland to Umeå in search of more reliable snow conditions. However, in the Umeå region the organisers have encountered new problems with Sami communities engaged in reindeer herding.
The main issue has been that some special stages have run across reindeer grazing land. Last year, the parties argued over the route until the final moments, but the rally ultimately went ahead as planned. Behind the scenes, however, tensions were high: just days before the event, three reindeer were found killed outside Umeå, and the Sami community believed the incident was linked to the rally dispute.
The hatchet has still not been buried, as the county administrative board has once again been required to review Rally Sweden’s permit application. According to Västerbottens Kuriren, a consultation meeting was held at the county administrative board before Christmas, attended by representatives of the Grans and Rans Sami communities, the Swedish Sami National Association and the Sami Parliament.
No agreement was reached during the consultation, leaving the county administrative board to make its own decision. On Friday evening, the board gave the rally the green light, but the dispute may not be over. The Sami representatives considered it likely that the decision would still be followed by an appeal process.
A proposal firmly rejected
In previous years, reports suggested that Sami communities had demanded large compensation sums from the rally organisers for running stages on reindeer grazing land. At the consultation, the Grans Sami community stated that it had demanded exactly zero kronor in compensation for last year’s rally.
The Grans Sami community has proposed that special stages be run east of the E4 highway along the Gulf of Bothnia, closer to the coast. In this year’s rally, only one stage is scheduled to take place between the main road and the coastline.
Rally Sweden, for its part, offered the Grans Sami community a place within the event area of the Umeå super special stage, where it could “provide positive promotion and increase public understanding of reindeer herding”. The Sami community responded negatively to the proposal.
“From the 1870s to the 1940s, Sami people were exhibited for public viewing. Suggesting that Sami people should once again stand as exotic exhibition objects at the Red Barn Arena is outdated and racist.”
In its decision, the county administrative board stated that Rally Sweden’s permit application was assessed solely on the basis of traffic regulations. As a result, the Reindeer Husbandry Act and environmental legislation were not taken into account, as the board considers the rally to be a competition conducted on public roads.
The Sami community has directed criticism at the county administrative board over decisions made in previous years. During the December consultation, the Rans Sami community stated that “the decision will be appealed by one party or another, regardless of how it is formulated”.
Rally Sweden is scheduled to take place from 12 to 15 February.
