During Friday, party secretary Tobias Baudin (S) distanced himself from the criticized telephone sales of S-lotteries, when he met the media. The background to the lightning press conference is the lottery scandal that followed Today’s News revelation of how telemarketers in Barcelona used aggressive sales to the elderly to sell party tickets.
Baudin announced that the CEO of Kombispel has had to leave with immediate effect and that all board members are being asked to leave the company – measures he described as tough and powerful.
– It is completely reprehensible, and it should not occur in any activity that we stand behind. We have never ever given any directives that the business should be managed in this way, says Tobias Baudin (S), party secretary, at a press conference.
“A lot of money that can be collected”
Tobias Baudin (S) believes that no one in the party’s executive committee knew that the party’s lottery tickets had been sold using ugly sales methods against the elderly. But Göran Greider, editor-in-chief of the independent social democratic Dala-Demokraten, saw the statement.
– It is still the case that the party treasurer and the party secretary should have had better control of this. But I fear that it is the case that they have seen that there is so much money that can be collected, so they have turned a blind eye to it, says Göran Greider to TV4 Nyheterna.
Long-standing criticism of the S lottery
In recent years, the party lottery has been criticized for, among other things, telephone sales of lottery tickets on credit to debtors and for having funneled thousands to the Crown Enforcement Agency.
As recently as last year, Expressen reported on telemarketers’ secret script to deceive pensioners.
Despite that, Baudin claims that the executive committee did not know about the sales methods, even though party treasurer Joakim Jonsson sits on both the board of Kombispel and on the committee.
Greider calls the lottery scandal a failure on several levels and questions Baudin’s future as party secretary.
– We’ll see how he handles this, but I think he’s been weak so far actually. It is his job to make sure that all businesses connected to Sveavägen 68 work, says Göran Greider.
TV4 Nyheterna has sought out Tobias Baudin and Kombispel’s board members, who declined interviews through the Social Democrats’ press department.