Could the first cracks be appearing in the Swedish coalition, only a month after the installation of the government? made up of Conservatives, Christian Democrats and Liberals, and supported by the Democrats of Sweden (SD, extreme right)? On November 20, the newspaper Expressen revealed that during a meeting with activists, Johan Pehrson, the leader of the Swedish Liberal Party, minister for the labor market of the new majority, had described the SD as “brown sadness” – a reference to the neo-Nazi roots of the party – and assured that its participation in the coalition agreement presented on October 14 had made it possible to avoid the inclusion of “a bunch of crazy stuff”.
Several SD leaders immediately reacted, recalling that, in this government program known as the “Tidö agreement”, the four parties have pledged to “behaving with dignity and speaking respectfully of central representatives” of each of the formations. Has the leader of the Liberal Party issued an apology? This is what the Democrats of Sweden say. Johan Pehrson refuses to confirm, a few days before his party’s congress, on November 26, during which he hopes to be re-elected as president.
Asked about the incident, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson tried to play down its significance: “We all sometimes express ourselves in a way that doesn’t go over very well, but that’s been fixed for a long time”, he assured on November 20. The head of government would have done well without these tensions when the four-party coalition is already having to deal with the critics who accuse him of having presented a budget that falls far short of its promises.
That, for example, of establishing a tariff shield for electricity. During the election campaign, the four parties made it one of their main commitments. It was to be implemented from 1er november. However, on October 27, the government announced that instead of this device, it would pay retroactive compensation to cover the additional costs incurred by households last year. Problem: this will only be granted at the beginning of 2023, and only to the inhabitants of the southern half of the country. Those of the North will not touch anything.
The Forgotten of the North
This discrimination is justified by the price differences, established according to the regions where the production of electricity is more or less important. However, this does not correspond to the promises of the right and the extreme right. The pill is all the more difficult to pass as the Swedes of the North have the feeling of being eternally forgotten by a policy which is decided hundreds of kilometers to the south.
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