Internal M criticism against Ulf Kristersson

The moderates have positioned themselves as Sweden’s third largest party – now the frustration is growing internally.

According to M sources, they talk about “the satisfaction of the falling expectations”.

– We lead the government but are becoming increasingly irrelevant. If Ulf Kristersson doesn’t fix this now, he will never succeed, says a source.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has received a boost in public opinion in the last month. But with rising popularity comes increased pressure. Aftonbladet has been in contact with M sources who speak of a great internal frustration.

The frustration culminated during a conference where the federation presidents from the various county federations of the Moderates gathered to listen to the party leadership’s analysis of the situation.

Deputy party secretary Martin Borgs is said to have shown diagrams and figures from various opinion polls during the meeting, according to information given to Aftonbladet. The figures showed increases of 0.2 to 1 percentage point.

– This was described as a landslide victory. It seems they are happy as long as we stay above 19 percent, says a source.

Happy if we are above 19 percent

According to the source, the party leadership’s enthusiasm is called internally “the satisfaction of falling expectations”. The expression is a play on Tage Elander’s quote “the dissatisfaction of rising expectations” which was coined to describe that people are becoming increasingly dissatisfied even though they are financially better off.

– People get pissed off and wonder how we ended up here. Should we be happy only if we are above 19 percent? Kristersson has had a fantastic month, but then the demand increases. You don’t get many better periods than this. He must ensure that we get above the level of the Sweden Democrats, says an M source.

To continue increasing, M must start focusing on the party’s core issues, such as economic policy, according to Aftonbladet’s sources.

Very good weeks

Support for the Moderates has increased in several opinion polls. In Aftonbladet/Demoskop’s latest voter barometer, the party measured almost 20 percent, an increase of 1.3 percentage points since the previous month.

Martin Borgs, deputy party secretary responsible for strategy and communication, analyzes that the rise is due to citizens starting to see the results of the government’s policies. He mentions the police’s ability to fight crime, NATO entry and that inflation is starting to go down.

– It is a positive trend, but there is a lot of hard work that remains. We need to win back metropolitan voters, women and those who voted for us municipally but not in the Riksdag, he says.

Not important to be bigger than SD now

Becoming bigger than SD is not an interim goal for the party.

– Whether we are bigger or smaller than SD in public opinion between elections is not important. They have more mandates than we do in the Riksdag, but together we can muster a majority to get Sweden in order, says Borgs.

Internally, they talk about “the satisfaction of falling expectations”. Have you heard of it?

– It was a sly wording, but I haven’t heard that. The party leadership is certainly not satisfied. In the long term, the goal is for us to become Sweden’s largest party, something we have never succeeded in general elections. As Ulf usually says – this is a marathon and not a sprint.