On Wednesday, the party leaders met during a three-hour long debate before the EU elections.
– Don’t let the political game block the important issues, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (M) began.
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SVT has compiled how many times words containing “troll” are mentioned in the debate and how much of the speeches the party leaders spend talking about anonymous accounts.
According to election researcher Henrik Ekengren Oscarsson, it is not surprising that the opposition “takes the opportunity” to focus on the disclosure of SD’s anonymous accounts.
– Here there is a principle and a party that violated the principle. There is also a principle of its own that the Tidö parties set up about respect, which has also been broken, he says.
At the beginning of the party leader debate, each party leader gave a 5-7 minute speech. SVT has compiled a large proportion of the speech (counted in number of words) that the party leaders devoted to the debate about anonymous accounts. Photo: SVT
The focus of the opposition
Opposition leader Magdalena Andersson (S) devoted 63 percent of the speech to talking about anonymous accounts. She mentioned the word “troll factory” twice during the course of the debate.
– The party leader debate is for discussing issues that are important before the upcoming EU elections, says the S leader afterwards.
Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar mentioned words containing “troll” a total of 17 times during the debate – 15 of which were during his speech. 89 percent of the speech was about anonymous accounts.
When asked why Dadgostar chose to focus on anonymous accounts and mentioned “trolls” repeatedly in the debate, she answers:
– According to the EU, this type of method is a threat to free and fair elections.
Number of times the party leaders mention words containing “troll” during the debate before the EU elections, for example “troll factory” and “troll account”. Photo: SVT
Åkesson: “Stop using the term”
The governing parties and the Sweden Democrats did not address anonymous accounts in their own speeches.
During the roughly three-hour long debate, Ulf Kristersson mentioned the word “troll account” once but “anonymous accounts” several times.
SD leader Jimmie Åkesson used the term “troll” twice in the debate to dismiss the accusations.
– They don’t show a troll factory, stop using that term. There is no troll factory with us. There is no misinformation being spread from us.