Svalöv’s municipal slogan reads “place for life”. Here, politics is dominated at the moment by the stalled construction of the Lantlyckan retirement home, with approximately 60 planned places in the municipality with just over 14,000 inhabitants. The contractor HA Bygg recently went bankrupt after the municipality discovered irregularities in their contract. The half-finished concrete skeletons next to the railway are now described as the snowball that has had the effect that more housing and schools under construction by HA Bygg both in Skåne and Halland have now frozen.
– Recession, planning processes, appeals. In the end, we thought this would be blissful, if I may say so myself. That we would get the old people’s home that everyone has been waiting for, because here there is a great expectation in the local community, says Teddy Nilsson (SD), chairman of the Svalöv municipal board.
Model for the Tidö Agreement
With over 35 percent in the 2022 municipal election, SD is by far the largest party in Svalöv. For Teddy Nilsson, this is the second term as chairman of the municipal board in coalition with M and KD. Last term, the Liberals were also required to get a majority. The 72-point program that the four parties concluded in 2019, in connection with the new government taking over after the Alliance broke up, has been seen as a model for the Tidö agreement. Here, however, L stood outside the board itself, corresponding to how the SD in Tidösamarbetet functioned as a cooperating party to the government.
– Regardless of the fact that the Liberals were part of the collaboration and participated in the budget, they have also declared that to a certain extent they stood a bit as, what shall we say, an opposite pole to Sweden’s democratic politics. Now it’s not like you need to be a direct opposite, because we are conducting municipal politics, and it’s a little more down-to-earth, says Teddy Nilsson (SD).
Put down the ban on begging and headscarves
Municipal politics is more pragmatic than national politics. For the Svalövs Liberals, it was still crucial during the last mandate period to include among the points that the SD would not push for a ban on begging or a veil ban, with a liberal vocabulary placard policy. And L thinks it is still felt, because it perceives that even now that it no longer needs the Liberals’ mandate, the SD still holds.
– They have not pursued any issues connected to migration, integration and so on in such a way that differs from how others had done, says Torbjörn Ekelund (L), group leader Svalöv.
Could have more influence at national level
For Torbjörn Ekelund, it is more important which policy you can get through in an agreement, than the question of who you agree with. On the national level, on the other hand, there is a clearer ideological charge towards SD, not least before the question of a possible continued Tidö collaboration after the next election. The Liberals’ party leader Johan Pehrson has said that he can neither imagine sitting in the same government as SD nor supporting a government in which SD is included. However, Torbjörn Ekelund sees that there could be advantages for L in the possible course of action to switch places with the SD and assume the role of the cooperation party themselves.
– I don’t think it would have been a bad situation for the Liberals to end up in the situation where you can influence the government, and at the same time be able to pursue your own policy on the issues that are important to us.
Was there anything you felt you could do successfully here?
– I think so. We were able to influence politics quite substantially, among other things in terms of resources for the school and other such matters of the heart for a liberal, says Torbjörn Ekelund (L).
Hoping for national acceptance
While the municipality of Svalöv is now looking for a new contractor who can complete the construction of the nursing home, Teddy Nilsson believes that SD’s success here is based on being able to show that it works long-term. He wishes that the party will have a similar chance at the national level as well, which Jimmie Åkesson has also put forward as a demand towards the Tidö colleagues so that the collaboration could continue after 2026.
– The Sweden Democrats will be tested (in Svalöv), but our requirement to be tested here was to be in leadership. Here we got an acceptance for it. This term, we have not received an acceptance nationally, as I said, I look forward to receiving an acceptance next time.
Because that’s where you think it will go?
– I hope so, says Teddy Nilsson (SD).