Linda Lindberg has jumped in as a replacement during the summer for party leader Jimmie Åkesson.
She has given a speech in his place during Järvaveckan and on Saturday she will step onto the Almedal stage in his place.
— Of course, it feels good to have received that trust. There are big holes to fill, but I will do my best, she says.
Lindberg stepped in as group leader in the spring and is also a social policy spokesperson and chairman of the union SD women.
She hopes that Jimmie Åkesson remains for many more years as party leader because he is “terribly good at what he does”. She has no plans to run for office.
— I have no visions for it, right now I am very grateful in the role I have as group leader, and I am quite new in that role. I enjoy it.
Brand new location
Now SD is in a completely new position since the election last year and is a partner party to a government led by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (M). In his Almedal speech on Wednesday, the prime minister spoke a lot about social reforms to prevent youth crime and exclusion.
“We once fought Poor Sweden with a mixture of a rational view of knowledge, recent social reforms, family planning and ideals of stewardship. I think Sweden needs to make the same trip once more.”
— Unfortunately, says Lindberg as a comment on the statement and continues:
— We have a picture of society that has changed drastically in recent years due to the fact that we have had a poorly conducted policy that has caused us to backslide in many areas, and here we have to take a step back, of course. But in some sense, the elephant we are talking about is the poorly conducted migration and integration policy.
“Every family stands free”
As far as family planning is concerned – for example a campaign to inform about contraception, sex and abortion – Lindberg is not as convinced that it is needed.
— You can ask Ulf that question what he actually means by that. But each family is free to do so.
She would have liked to have been more specific about what such a proposal would entail, but at the same time says:
— I can’t see why we would do that.
In the 2022 election campaign, the Social Democrats tasked several authorities with informing foreign-born women about family planning and career opportunities.
Even the Green Party’s spokeswoman Märta Stenevi has said in a DN interview that she believes that “a conversation about family planning somehow has to happen”.
— Doubtful. I don’t have a very strong point of view or opinion about it, says Lindberg.
— It is nothing that we drive sharply from our horizon.
Contribution to families with children
An issue that SD has pushed for a long time is to review the multiple-child supplement, the addition to the child allowance that families receive extra for each child they have. SD wants to reform the multiple-child allowance into a tax deduction so that those who work will be allowed to make deductions in the return instead.
— Because without even asking society for financial support, x number of thousands of Swedish kroner trickles in every month and we have to look at this. Because it is not good for anyone, it is not good for any individual, says Lindberg.
The proposal is not included in the Tidö agreement that SD and the governing parties have agreed on.
– It’s probably nothing that we even brought up, we’ve had more pressing issues, such as criminal policy and migration policy, which have been our biggest parts to get into Tidö, she says.