The latest poll confirms what those who follow politics have seen for a long time: Swedish politics is not led by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, says Nordic correspondent Pirjo Auvinen.
Pirjo Auvinen, Nordic correspondent
STOCKHOLM This morning’s radio news must have been for the Prime Minister of Sweden For Ulf Kristersson harsh to hear.
The Prime Minister’s Party, the moderate coalition, has lost 2.3 percentage points of its support in a month. The governing parties have also become a minus for liberals, plus only for Christians.
On the other hand, the support party of the government, the Swedish Democrats, has strengthened by three percentage points in a month. Its support is now greater than the three government parties combined.
Among the government alternatives, the red-green bloc of the opposition, i.e. the Democrats, the Left Party, the Greens and the center, has maintained its strong lead. The combined support of the Tidö parties, i.e. the government and the Sweden Democrats, has risen only slightly, despite the support jump of the Sweden Democrats.
It can be seen in the support figures now for the first time clearly the strangeness of last fall’s government solution.
Kristersson did not take the Sweden Democrats into the government, but made his government completely dependent on it. That is why many have long estimated that Sweden is practically led by the chairman of the Sweden Democrats Jimmie Åkesson.
Åkesson applies the status of the support party to the full and without any political responsibility. The Sweden Democrats act as if they are both in the government and in the opposition at the same time.
While Kristersson and the rest of the government are trying to make the gang crime provisions stricter, Åkesson is banging on about going full force.
Here are a couple of examples.
The government is currently investigating whether the age limit for criminal responsibility could be lowered from the current 15 years. Last Saturday Åkesson said in a radio interviewthat 13-year-old gang criminals could be sentenced to life imprisonment.
The government is preparing the introduction of so-called special areas. With them, the police could perform body checks without suspecting a crime. Svenska Dagbladet in the interview, Åkesson goes much further. It should be possible to arrest him in special areas and put people in a cell without suspicion of a crime. Åkesson could not answer the question of how long a person could be locked in a cell.
Sweden’s gang crime has now become so brutal that the government looks out of place and Åkesson looks rude. Gangs, the threat of terrorism and the failing economy are themes that favor the Sweden Democrats.
The survey also asked about the next prime minister most preferred. Its percentages were also low for the current prime minister: Kristersson 18, Åkesson 17.