Politics in Sweden: a new budget, unemployment, and Ebba Busch's travails
Here's the roundup of the week in Swedish politics, in the latest edition of The Local's Politics in Sweden column.
Sometimes in politics, 'friendly fire' is rather welcome.
The moment Sweden's finance minister Elisabeth Svantesson announced her penny-scrimping spring budget on Monday, Benjamin Dousa, head of the right-wing Timbro thinktank was out on TV savaging the government for not announcing any juicy tax cuts or welfare reforms.
"Since the government came in they haven't come out with a single reform to the economy. They haven't even launched an inquiry into a welfare cap, the very core of Moderate party policy. It's almost enough to make you ask, 'what the hell am I actually getting for my vote', Dousa, the former chair of the youth group of Svantesson's own Moderate Party, thundered on SVT.
Svantesson has kept a low profile since Sweden's three-party coalition came to power in November but on Monday she seemed in her element, confident in her role as a tough, responsible, safe pair of hands, whose overriding priority is to get inflation under control.
Aside from a decision to extend and increase a temporary boost to housing benefit -- worth a relatively insignificant 720m kronor -- the government announced nothing to allay the cost of living crisis faced by people across Sweden, sparking sharp criticism from the left.
Mikael Damberg, economic spokesperson for the opposition Social Democrats, condemned the budget as "right-wing politics at its very worst".
The government, he said, had lost its last chance to help those worst hit by rising prices. There were single mothers in Sweden today, he said, "who aren't even able to put nourishing food on the plates of their children".
Ali Esbati, finance spokesperson for the Left Party, called the budget "shockingly passive", while Åse Henell, secretary general of the Majblommans riksförbund, a child poverty charity, told Svenska Dagbladet that the budget would give the poorest in society "exactly zero kronor more in their wallets".
Faced with all this, Dousa's attack from the right -- rather than harming Svantesson -- actually makes it look more like she's taking the sensible middle ground.
READ ALSO: Sweden targets support to most vulnerable in tight spring budget
How bad can it get for Ebba?
Sweden's business and energy minister Ebba Busch sought to pep up the party faithful on Friday when the Christian Democrat party held its annual members meet-up in Örebro, west of Stockholm.
Despite the upbeat style of her speech, the tough ride she has had since taking power in November meant she faced an uphill battle.
Many of the government's worst problems sit under her jurisdiction, from the long-delayed electricity price compensation scheme (with first decisions on compensation for businesses and people in the north of Sweden still yet to come), to a controversial plan to slash the amount of biofuels mixed with petrol and diesel.
At the same time, the sexual assault accusations levelled against former party secretary Johan Ingerö by the party's leading MEP Sara Skyttedal hung over the party conference like a dark cloud. Ingerö was immediately ousted, but Skyttedal was there in Örebro.
This was despite the questions over her future following her decision to go completely off message in December and start pushing for more liberal cannabis laws.
The sense among voters that Busch made promises in the election she could not keep appears to have hit home.
The day before her speech, the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper published a poll by Sifo which saw the Christian Democrats fell below the four percent parliamentary threshold for the first time since 2018.
The party has lost a full 3.8 percentage points since the election. That is nearly half of its support.
Of course, there's still a long way to go until the election, but it's also hard to see any easy solutions to many of the obstacles Busch is facing. Things could quite easily get even worse.
Do the unemployed in Sweden having it too easy?
Johan Perhson, the Liberal Party leader who provided the comic relief in last year's election campaign, is continuing to see that his killen vid grillen (literally "bloke at a barbecue") common man persona does not work quite so well in government.
On Friday he posted a tweet blaming the stop to SJ trains between Skåne and Gothenburg in the summer on overly generous unemployment benefits and got a savaging on social media.
"No SJ trains between Skåne and Göteborg this summer," Perhson, who is now Sweden's employment minister, wrote. "That's just completely crazy. Hundreds of thousands of people unemployed and trains are still being cancelled as a result of driver shortages. With this government's policies the unemployed are not going to have it so easy. Welfare reform, education for jobs, the work-first principle. Full stop."
It was quickly pointed out that 1,500 people applied for the 36 places offered by Trafikverksskolan, The Swedish Transport Administration's own train driver school, while 750 applied for the 30 places offered by the train company MTR.
"When I say that people 'have it easy', I mean that it is too easy not to get the necessary education and to make the personal effort that is so important," Perhson said when he was invited onto Swedish Radio to explain his comments.
Politics in Sweden is a weekly column by Editor Emma Löfgren looking at the big talking points and issues in Swedish politics. Members of The Local Sweden can sign up to receive an email alert when the column is published. Just click on this “newsletters” option or visit the menu bar.
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Sometimes in politics, 'friendly fire' is rather welcome.
The moment Sweden's finance minister Elisabeth Svantesson announced her penny-scrimping spring budget on Monday, Benjamin Dousa, head of the right-wing Timbro thinktank was out on TV savaging the government for not announcing any juicy tax cuts or welfare reforms.
"Since the government came in they haven't come out with a single reform to the economy. They haven't even launched an inquiry into a welfare cap, the very core of Moderate party policy. It's almost enough to make you ask, 'what the hell am I actually getting for my vote', Dousa, the former chair of the youth group of Svantesson's own Moderate Party, thundered on SVT.
Svantesson has kept a low profile since Sweden's three-party coalition came to power in November but on Monday she seemed in her element, confident in her role as a tough, responsible, safe pair of hands, whose overriding priority is to get inflation under control.
Aside from a decision to extend and increase a temporary boost to housing benefit -- worth a relatively insignificant 720m kronor -- the government announced nothing to allay the cost of living crisis faced by people across Sweden, sparking sharp criticism from the left.
Mikael Damberg, economic spokesperson for the opposition Social Democrats, condemned the budget as "right-wing politics at its very worst".
The government, he said, had lost its last chance to help those worst hit by rising prices. There were single mothers in Sweden today, he said, "who aren't even able to put nourishing food on the plates of their children".
Ali Esbati, finance spokesperson for the Left Party, called the budget "shockingly passive", while Åse Henell, secretary general of the Majblommans riksförbund, a child poverty charity, told Svenska Dagbladet that the budget would give the poorest in society "exactly zero kronor more in their wallets".
Faced with all this, Dousa's attack from the right -- rather than harming Svantesson -- actually makes it look more like she's taking the sensible middle ground.
READ ALSO: Sweden targets support to most vulnerable in tight spring budget
How bad can it get for Ebba?
Sweden's business and energy minister Ebba Busch sought to pep up the party faithful on Friday when the Christian Democrat party held its annual members meet-up in Örebro, west of Stockholm.
Despite the upbeat style of her speech, the tough ride she has had since taking power in November meant she faced an uphill battle.
Many of the government's worst problems sit under her jurisdiction, from the long-delayed electricity price compensation scheme (with first decisions on compensation for businesses and people in the north of Sweden still yet to come), to a controversial plan to slash the amount of biofuels mixed with petrol and diesel.
At the same time, the sexual assault accusations levelled against former party secretary Johan Ingerö by the party's leading MEP Sara Skyttedal hung over the party conference like a dark cloud. Ingerö was immediately ousted, but Skyttedal was there in Örebro.
This was despite the questions over her future following her decision to go completely off message in December and start pushing for more liberal cannabis laws.
The sense among voters that Busch made promises in the election she could not keep appears to have hit home.
The day before her speech, the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper published a poll by Sifo which saw the Christian Democrats fell below the four percent parliamentary threshold for the first time since 2018.
The party has lost a full 3.8 percentage points since the election. That is nearly half of its support.
Of course, there's still a long way to go until the election, but it's also hard to see any easy solutions to many of the obstacles Busch is facing. Things could quite easily get even worse.
Do the unemployed in Sweden having it too easy?
Johan Perhson, the Liberal Party leader who provided the comic relief in last year's election campaign, is continuing to see that his killen vid grillen (literally "bloke at a barbecue") common man persona does not work quite so well in government.
On Friday he posted a tweet blaming the stop to SJ trains between Skåne and Gothenburg in the summer on overly generous unemployment benefits and got a savaging on social media.
"No SJ trains between Skåne and Göteborg this summer," Perhson, who is now Sweden's employment minister, wrote. "That's just completely crazy. Hundreds of thousands of people unemployed and trains are still being cancelled as a result of driver shortages. With this government's policies the unemployed are not going to have it so easy. Welfare reform, education for jobs, the work-first principle. Full stop."
It was quickly pointed out that 1,500 people applied for the 36 places offered by Trafikverksskolan, The Swedish Transport Administration's own train driver school, while 750 applied for the 30 places offered by the train company MTR.
"When I say that people 'have it easy', I mean that it is too easy not to get the necessary education and to make the personal effort that is so important," Perhson said when he was invited onto Swedish Radio to explain his comments.
Politics in Sweden is a weekly column by Editor Emma Löfgren looking at the big talking points and issues in Swedish politics. Members of The Local Sweden can sign up to receive an email alert when the column is published. Just click on this “newsletters” option or visit the menu bar.
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