Would be better if SD was here

Ebba Busch and Ulf Kristersson were pressed during the RFSL’s party leadership debate about what a government collaboration with the Sweden Democrats might mean for the rights of LGBTQI people in Sweden.

The two party leaders said that any fears are unfounded.

– I am secure in my basic values, says Ulf Kristersson.

When the RFSL’s traditional party leader debate during Pride Week started on Friday afternoon, to the tune of a brutal downpour that lashed down over Östermalm IP, it quickly became clear that Ebba Busch (KD) and Ulf Kristersson (M) would occupy a special position among the other politicians On the stage.

Early in the debate – which was actually a hearing and which left no room for exchanges between the party leaders – the moderator Stefan Ingvarsson decided that the questions should be addressed to the parties where it was considered that there was uncertainty regarding their positions.

Don’t want to modernize gender identity

Strikingly often, the questions were asked directly to Ebba Busch and Ulf Kristersson, and to a much lesser extent to, for example, Annie Lööf (C). And even if SD was not invited to the event, it did not mean that the party was absent from the conversation.

It was most heated when Stefan Ingvarsson asked Ebba Busch and Ulf Kristersson how they feel about reacting with a party that “doesn’t want to modernize the gender identity law in Sweden at all”.

This is in reference to a government proposal for a new gender identity law that will make it easier for trans people to change their legal gender, which has recently been submitted to the Legislative Council – the last step before a bill can be presented to the Riksdag.

– We are very happy about our close cooperation with the Liberals, we are also happy about many of the important changes where we have produced good policies together with the Sweden Democrats regarding, for example, legal policy, which I believe also has value in this area, says Ebba Busch and continues:

– But our line regarding the rights of LGBTQI people is completely crystal clear and non-compromising.

Criticized RFSL

Ebba Busch then stated, like Ulf Kristersson, that she supports a change in gender change legislation and that she wants to counteract the “over-bureaucratization” of the issue and “cut the queues” for transgender people who seek care. But she criticized the RFSL for not inviting the Sweden Democrats to the debate.

– I think it is better to meet in debate where you have different opinions. Then the differences in these issues could also have become even clearer. But where we stand on these issues is crystal clear and those basics are not negotiable, says Ebba Busch.

Ulf Kristersson was of the same opinion:

– You get a more meaningful debate if you want to talk about a party’s policy if that party is here than if the rest of us have to answer for a party that is not here, says Ulf Kristersson and continues:

– I am secure in my basic values, I have stood on this stage figuratively speaking since 1995 when I broke the moderate party line together with Fredrik Reinfeldt and voted yes to registered partnership.

“Would be better if everyone was here”

That Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson turned down the debate – with reference to an unspecified “commitment” – was criticized by Ebba Busch from the stage.

– I think it would have been better if all eight parties had been here today. Both that the Social Democrats, who actually hold the post of prime minister, unfortunately we do not, had been here. But also that the Sweden Democrats had been here.

To SVT has RFSL’s confederation chairman Trifa Shakely previously stated that the organization did not invite SD because the party does not advocate any LGBTQ reform and “often expresses itself clearly racist”.