The Sweden Democrats would like to join hands with the Social Democrats on issues that are not regulated in the Tidö Agreement. SD’s strategy is, among other things, to vote for S proposals in the Riksdag. But above all, SD intends to force the other Tidö parties to change their opinion by threatening to otherwise settle with the Social Democrats. In the Riksdag’s press center, SD presented its new strategy at the end of January. The background is that the EU recently hammered out a directive on minimum wages, something that critics believe undermines the Swedish wage negotiation model. The government intended to investigate how the directive would be introduced in Sweden. But when the Social Democrats called a press conference to protest the proposal, SD used it as leverage – and threatened to settle with the Social Democrats unless the government changed its foot. Which happened ten minutes before the Social Democrats were to start their press conference. – It’s no secret that we pushed quite hard. If we get a majority for another decision in the committee, there is a good chance that we will do it. Now the government chose to change its mind, says Magnus Persson, the Sweden Democrats’ spokesperson for labor market issues. – We announced a press conference and SD obviously understood this, and made the government not want to suffer a major defeat, says Lena Hallengren, Social Democratic group leader in the Riksdag. An effective means of pressure The SD is now looking ahead to how they can use the Social Democrats to push through more policies on issues that are not regulated in the Tidö Agreement. They themselves state that it concerns, for example, the labor market, social safety nets, EU issues and the work environment. But SD also thinks that the threat of a settlement with S was an effective means of pressure. – It is no secret that the Social Democrats and the Sweden Democrats together have their own majority, says Magnus Persson. A: Will not negotiate with SD The Social Democrats say they will not negotiate with SD, but would like to see more social democratic policies go through. – This says quite a lot about the cooperation climate of the Tidö parties, that they will use the sossas as a lever. But it is clear that we want in different ways to achieve a more equal and fair Sweden with social democratic politics, says Lena Hallengren. Several sources within the government describe irritation at SD’s tactics – above all among Liberals, who are in charge of, for example, labor market and work environment issues. At the same time, sources within SD say that they do not dare to go too hard, for fear of sabotaging the Tidö agreement. But a certain amount of anger can be tolerated. – I have no problem living with irritated liberals. They know what the distribution of mandates looks like, they know what the working conditions look like within the Tidö agreement. They can be angry and sound as much as they want, but this is how it works in politics, says Magnus Persson.
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