Care, school, care, taxes and infrastructure projects are common issues in the national election debate – issues that are close to our everyday lives.
But in the EU debate, wallet issues are further away. Instead, the debate is to a greater extent about regulations that will make the internal market work, says Markus Johansson, researcher in political science at the Swedish Institute for European Political Studies and the University of Gothenburg.
– It’s about everyone competing fairly – and that affects, for example, environmental legislation. You shouldn’t be able to compete with lower environmental standards, he says.
Already in October, you could feel that the parties were starting to position themselves for the EU election debate when the issue of housing renovations was raised. The Green Party is in favor of the proposal, which aims to make properties more climate-friendly, while the Sweden Democrats think it will be expensive and bad.
Forward for the EU critics?
In the 2019 election, there was a lot of focus on how much power the EU-critical parties would get in parliament. Markus Johansson believes that issue can sail up again.
– That component remains now as well. It has the potential to be decisive for the EU itself, but it depends entirely on the outcome of the election, says