It is in many ways a golden opportunity to be opposition leader right now. The Tidö parties have turned politics towards the extremes and there is much for the opposition to object to. For Magdalena Andersson, this was an opportunity to enumerate a list of everything that the government is NOT doing, or doing in the wrong way. A list that covered much of what the Social Democrats lacked in the prime minister’s speech earlier today, when HE listed what his government had achieved.
But opposition is also an opportunity for parties to repair, rebuild and prepare for the next election when they naturally hope to get back into government. So the Social Democrats are currently using the time to carve out a new policy and it was this new direction that Magdalena Andersson devoted the main part of her Almedal speech tonight.
Hence the big words – a reminder of the upheavals that Sweden has undergone in the last hundred years and a promise that something equally disruptive awaits with the Social Democrats in power. A new social community, nothing less, is promised.
So it sounds bold – but when the former prime minister promises to build a school where every student is given the conditions to make it all the way to high school, the only concrete new proposal – to deprive the International English School of the opportunity to teach in English – may be a bit silly.
The reason for that is called policy development. The Social Democrats are working on developing new policies that will change society, policies are promised to improve schools, mix students from different areas, prevent gang crime. While waiting for the party to agree on the content of the policy, the words can be just as big as you like. A new direction for Sweden, it will be. But you will find out exactly what that means later.