On Thursday, Statistics Sweden presented the first of the year party sympathy survey – which shows that the incumbent government is losing support, while the opposition – and mainly S – is increasing significantly.
Jens B Nordström, TV4 Nyhetern’s political commentator, analyzes today’s figures by answering three questions.
Why do the Tidö parties continue to lose?
The discussion about broken election promises has caught on, and both the electricity price support and the fuel reduction obligation have been a sequel during the spring and winter. It seems to have punished all Tidöparties, except the Moderates, who are standing still.
Could this make the government change its policy?
The signals so far from the government are that they hope that time will work in their favor, and that they will let the course be fixed. It is still a long way until the next election, and the hope among the Tidö parties is that a lot will happen before then, both in politics and public opinion. But the fact that the Social Democrats are going so strongly can certainly lead to discussion about that strategy.
Like onions on salmon, both the Liberals and the Christian Democrats clearly park themselves under the Riksdag barrier – and then a lot can happen. It is difficult to see that the Tidö parties are satisfied with today’s state of opinion.
Which party has the most cause for concern in this situation?
All the crisis lights should be flashing with the Liberals and the Christian Democrats. They would not get into the Riksdag if there were elections today. But I think the biggest disappointment is perhaps with the Center Party. They have not seen any Murre effect after the party leader change. And they are also dangerously close to the Riksdag barrier. They are also losing sympathizers to the Social Democrats, a supposed cooperation partner. It probably stings a lot.