List: The political year 2024

March 7 – Sweden becomes a member of NATO

200 years of non-alignment are over and 2024 was the year Sweden joined NATO. This has, among other things, led to a major upgrading of the defence.

– The budget for defense has already doubled in four years and now it continues. They invest even more in all parts of the defence, says Ulf Kristofferson.

Sweden will also send soldiers to other NATO countries to strengthen their defenses. And if Donald Trump, the US president-elect, gets his way, the NATO countries will be forced to put even more money into the pot.

– He is talking about four, five percent of GDP for defence. That would mean another doubling for Sweden, says Kristofferson.

April 10 – Mikael is shot to death in Skärholmen

Gang crime gained an ever stronger grip on society. Last spring, 39-year-old Mikael was shot dead when he was on his way to the bathhouse in Skärholmen with his son.

– The murder continues, the gangs are still there and this terrible trend that we are seeing now is that younger and younger people are participating in the gross acts of violence. Children are recruited to a greater extent to become murderers, says Ulf Kristofferson.

At the same time, police figures show a decrease in the number of shootings and explosions, especially compared to the record year of 2022.

– They have invested a lot in crime fighting, new tools for the police and, above all, they believe that secret wiretapping has made it possible to arrest more people and prevent more crimes.

May 7 – Cold facts reveal SD’s troll factory

One of the big talking points of the year turned out to be Kallafakta’s revelation about the Sweden Democrats’ anonymous accounts, which in November was awarded the Big Journalist Prize for the Year’s Disclosure.

– There has been a storm around this and what contributed to it was also Jimmy Åkesson’s counter-attack on the media after the revelation, says Kristofferson.

Åkesson gave a speech to his constituents and called the whole thing a “gigantic domestic influence operation from the united left-liberal establishment”. Novus then came up with an opinion poll which showed that 71 percent of voters viewed the anonymous troll accounts negatively.

– It also caused friction within the Tidö collaboration, a crisis meeting between the party secretaries where the others tried to get the Sweden Democrats to say that they would stop using anonymous accounts like this. It did not succeed.

9 June – Elections to the European Parliament

EU elections were held in June. There, the Sweden Democrats, who expected better results, were overtaken by the Green Party.

– But the biggest winner in the election was actually the Left Party, which increased by over four percentage points. Much because of Jonas Sjöstedt who made a comeback in politics and ran a campaign where he targeted friends of Palestine and directed harsh criticism at Israel’s warfare in Gaza, says Ulf Kristofferson.

September 4 – Billström announces his resignation

Out of nowhere, Foreign Minister Tobias Billström (M) announced his resignation. What was behind his decision is still unclear.

– It is still a mystery that he, who had then reached the highest imaginable point in his political career, this dream job of becoming foreign minister, suddenly quits when Sweden has also joined NATO, which he was very committed to, says Ulf Kristofferson.

There were reports of a conflict between him and Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. It was also said that Tobias Billström had been offered the post of EU Commissioner, but that he turned it down.

– Everything was denied by the parties involved and the only explanation that Tobias Billström gave was that he wanted to do something else in life, that it was some kind of 50-year crisis. There are very few who believe that it is the whole truth, says Kristofferson.

Maria Malmer Stenergard (M) became the new foreign minister.

September 12 – Review of the S lots

The Social Democrats have also been in trouble. Back then it was all about lotteries and dubious telemarketers.

– It is one of the hardest blows the Social Democrats have had to deal with. Ever since the 1950s, these lotteries have been a key part of their funding. I think it’s almost incomprehensible that they haven’t gotten to the bottom of this before, says Ulf Kristofferson.

As a result of the lottery scandal, the Tidö parties will introduce a tax on party lotteries, which will remove the profitability of the Social Democrats’ lottery operations.

– It is a bit tragicomic that it is the Social Democrats of all people who are upset about a new tax. Otherwise, they usually claim that paying taxes is cool, as Mona Salin once said. But when it comes to their own income via lotteries, they don’t think it’s as cool.

27 September – Anna Kinberg Batra is forced to resign

A note at the reception was the start of a huge storm surrounding Stockholm’s governor Anna Kinberg Batra. It was all about questionable recruitment processes.

– The truth was that Anna Kinberg Batra handpicked a friend for a top job with a high salary, without anyone else getting a reasonable chance to apply for the job. That must not happen. In addition, there were irregularities in two more appointments to the County Administrative Board, says Ulf Kristofferson.

The judicial ombudsman directed harsh criticism at Anna Kinberg Batra and believed that her actions showed “nonchalance” and “lack of respect”.

– After that scandal, the government withdrew its support and declared that it no longer has confidence. Anna Kinberg Batra had to leave the palace and now resides in the so-called Elephant Cemetery, says Kristofferson.

November 14 – Paulina Brandberg’s banana phobia

The existence or non-existence of banana phobias became a talking point when it was revealed that Minister for Gender Equality Paulina Brandberg (L) turned out to be afraid of bananas.

– Expressen then wrote that her employees had had to spend a lot of time and effort to secure spaces where she would be so that there were no bananas there. And that is what makes it actually a story worth paying attention to, says Ulf Kristofferson.

December 12 – Electricity prices reach record levels

Electricity prices skyrocketed and the main person in the matter became Energy and Industry Minister Ebba Busch.

– Her solution to this problem is nuclear power. In the long run, she says it must be nuclear power. The reason we have ended up where we are now is because the red-green parties voted down nuclear power, says Ebba Busch, who wants Sweden to become a leader in Europe in nuclear power plants.

But Ulf Kristofferson sees several problems with this.

– One: it takes time to build new nuclear power plants. At least 10-15 years before any of them can be in place. It therefore does not solve the energy problems here and now. Two: it costs an incredible amount. There is no private company that is willing to invest this money.