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ELECTIONS 2014

ALLIANCE

Alliance lambasts opposition’s lack of unity

The government coalition has lashed out at the opposition parties for not being clear about what legislation Swedes can expect if there is a change in government in September.

Alliance lambasts opposition's lack of unity
Göran Hägglund, Jan Björklund, Annie Lööf, and Fredrik Reinfeldt. Photo: TT

"They don't even say that they want to govern together," Prime Minister and Moderate Party leader Fredrik Reinfeldt said at a press conference on Friday, together with all four leaders from the coalition.

READ ALSO: Is Sweden's prime minister overstaying his welcome?

The lack of unity in the opposition has become a recurring criticism from the governing centre-right coalition, the Alliance. Its leaders have stated that giving no word on post-election cooperation effectively left Swedish voters in the dark about what would actually happen should the Alliance lose.

"Sweden is heading towards the biggest political black-out in modern times," Liberal Party (Folkpartiet) leader Jan Björklund said on Friday.

READ ALSO: Social Democrat leader: "I'll rule with anyone except Jimmie"

Björklund said he believed the main opposition party, the Social Democrats, would swing more to the left after the elections. He also said that the smaller Left Party and the potential newcomer Feminist Initiative (Fi) could pull Swedish policy-making further to the left. Recent opinion polls show growing support for both parties, but Fi has not broken the four-percent barrier to enter the Riksdag.

"The problem with (Fi) leader Gudrun Schyman is not that she's a feminist, it's that she's a socialist," Björklund said about the veteran politician who headed the Left Party before she retired, only to re-emerge as a front figure for the feminist party that reached 2.3 percent in an Ipsos poll earlier this week.

Reinfeldt's and Björklund's coalition partners – the Centre Party and the Christian Democrats – have also ended up below the four-percent barrier in the latest round of opinion polls. 

READ ALSO: Government hits record low in latest opinion polls

In unison, the coalition leaders argued that a government dominated by the Social Democrats and the Greens would hamper Swedish economic growth. It also said that it believed Red-Green policies would lead to fewer jobs on the Swedish labour market, while proposed tax reforms would cost the average Swedish family 500 kronor ($77) in monthly spending power. 

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