Kinberg Batra on the criticism of Reinfeldt: Is proud of him

This early summer day, Anna Kinberg Batra took the bike from Nacka to our meeting place in Rålambshovsparken in Stockholm. She emphasizes that it is not every day that she rides a bike, it could just as easily be the car (a charging hybrid). But the choice of means of transport still says something about the path her new life has taken.

Since Anna Kinberg Batra was forced to leave her job as party leader for the Moderates in 2017, she has taken on several assignments in companies engaged in green conversion, including as chairman of the industry association Swedish Solar Energy. When she rattles off all other assignments, she still forgets a couple – as a participant in various quiz shows on television and a columnist in Dagens Industri.

She is full but is still not close to the workload that it meant to be a party leader. Even so, owning one is still beyond the reach of the average person.

– When it is at its best, it is fantastic. Working together with others for something you believe in and for change is big and difficult. I may miss politics, but I do not miss the political climate.

In early 2017 announced Anna Kinberg Batra that the Moderates were prepared to start talks with the Sweden Democrats on certain issues. It was a line that had been taboo until then. M sank like a stone in public opinion after the news and six months later she was forced to resign. Now an SD collaboration is no longer as controversial. M includes SD in its government base to be able to take over power after the autumn elections.

– The current party leadership has gone further than I thought we would do then. I do not think that SD is a government-capable party.

Anna Kinberg Batra was allowed to resign without having been tried in an election. She says that female party leaders still seem to be treated differently than their male colleagues.

– It is difficult to generalize, but it seems that female party leaders still arouse stronger feelings. The critique becomes more personal. It’s more about whether she’s the right person and type, less about what she says and does.

As the leader of the greatest the opposition party, Anna Kinberg Batra had the chance to become Sweden’s first female prime minister. But it was instead the S-leader Magdalena Andersson who had to take the historic step.

– I think it is great that a decision-making woman who went to Handels takes Sweden into NATO as Sweden’s first female prime minister. We could have had that several years ago, says Anna Kinberg Batra with a reference to the fact that both she and Magdalena Andersson have a background at the Stockholm School of Economics.

– She is rock hard in a good way. Sharp, well-read and tough in debates. I think that will be felt in the election campaign.

Anna Kinberg Batra succeeded Fredrik Reinfeldt when the Alliance was forced to relinquish power after eight years in government. No moderate leader has delivered as great success as Reinfeldt, but within the party there are many who today distance themselves from his work. Above all, it is the then attitude to the refugee issue that the critical moderates turn to.

– Personally, I am very proud to have been involved during the eight years that were the absolute strongest in modern times. Fredrik Reinfeldt was a very successful prime minister. I have a hard time turning against it and thinking it was bad.

She emphasizes that a party who has just lost the election obviously has to reconsider previous positions and that at times it can be a painful process. At the same time, she is critical of those within the party who distance themselves from their own history.

– The Social Democrats would never do that. S is very good at writing his own story while moderates can go and say that everything is bad. It’s silly. S are proud of their history and moderates should be much more.

– S would never turn against Göran Persson for the decision to disband Gotland’s regiment in 2004, instead they now tell how they are upgrading.

Between January and August 2017, Anna Kinberg Batra was a hunted person. We who watched politics then saw a party leader who closed more and more and had an ever smaller group of confidants around him. It often became stiff and angular in interviews and TV appearances.

When we now see each other, it is also a bit tentative initially but eases as time goes on. Nowadays, she has to fend for herself without any press secretary monitoring what is being said.

During her years as party leader, the use of social media grew strongly and the political parties were quick to catch on. The tone sharpened and the onslaught on political opponents reached a level we had not been used to until then.

– Unfortunately, the political climate has not improved, and in the end it can become a democracy problem. It was in 2016 that Twitter changed the algorithm so that the most emotionally charged end up first. Then Trump won and then came Brexit, and somewhere they all got really mad at each other. And it has continued. Unfortunately, this makes the policy too short-term and conflict-seeking. I do not miss that part.

What do you mean by democracy problems?

– If you magnify small conflicts and quarrel about people instead of solving the big issues, then politics works too poorly. If the debate is about individual quotes or someone’s dress instead of about the security of the kingdom and what we should live on when the whole world changes, it will be too short-term. In the end, it can become a democracy problem if it is perceived as if the politicians are just arguing and not solving what is important.

In the end, it can become a democracy problem if it is perceived as if the politicians are just arguing and not solving what is important.

One such issue is the green transition, which Anna Kinberg Batra considers to be treated too passively by political decision-makers. As mentioned, she sits on several company boards that deal with various forms of energy technology.

– I have gone there because it is fun and feels meaningful. We live off of engineering, innovation and foreign trade. This is what makes the Swedish people get food on the table.

– And it is in business that it happens. There is a huge force among entrepreneurs and private investors who see the importance of making this change now. They just drive. Politics has slipped behind. It is too preoccupied with dealing with and arguing about what is now.

Despite the craze for renewable energy, she is still a supporter of nuclear power. At the same time, she notes that it is entirely possible for those who want to build new nuclear power, but that no one has so far judged it profitable.

– It’s a shame because we need all the fossil-free energy we can produce. If we are facing a doubled need for electricity, the conflict is not about whether we should have nuclear power, solar energy or wind power. They are all needed. It is the fossil sources that are the enemy and must be removed.

Before the autumn elections, it is even in public opinion and Anna Kinberg Batra believes that we can count on more votes in the Riksdag before Sweden gets a new prime minister.

– We have not had a majority government since 2010 and it is starting to be time for more people to realize it now. To get through such terrain, you must be able to talk to other parties.

During her time as party leader, she was told by her staff not to talk so much about the rules of parliament because the voters think it is boring.

– But this autumn, it may be the parliamentary rules that make life exciting for the prime ministerial candidates, whether they like it or not. Who is the biggest on election day is just part of the government puzzle. The condition for becoming prime minister is not to receive 175 votes against him. This is the reality, says Anna Kinberg Batra and refers to the fact that this is what is required to get a majority among the 349 members of the Riksdag.

She believes that this autumn’s election movement will be dominated by four different areas – the war in Ukraine and its consequences, violent crime in Sweden, the climate and energy crisis and the more difficult economic situation that will be felt in the family economy for most people.

– These are the big questions, then it’s about which government alternative can answer them best.

Anna Kinberg Batra still has contact with some old party friends, some she sees as friends for life.

– But I’m not active. I am still a member of the Moderates, and I am both a parent and a taxpayer in Nacka municipality, which is governed by the Moderates. I think they are doing well.

DN’s overall reporting for the 2022 election