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POLITICS

BLOG: Sweden’s political power forum – Day One

Centre Party leader Annie Lööf kicked off Almedalen on Sunday, the annual conference where Swedish politicians, lobbyists, journalists and campaigners gather to debate on the island of Gotland.

BLOG: Sweden's political power forum - Day One
Centre Party leader, Annie Lööf, giving her keynote speech. Photo: TT

Sunday June 28th

8.21pm

Thanks for joining us on the first day of Almedalen 2015. We'll be back on Monday, when Prime Minister Stefan Löfven's Social Democrat party will dominate the agenda.

If you're tweeting about Almedalen in English, don't forget to use the hashtag #AlmedalenENG.

8.20pm

We're about to wrap up our blog for tonight, but before we go, here is a recap of Centre Party leader Annie Lööf's key points:

– Small business owners should stop being charged a payroll tax for their first member of staff during the first two years they are employed, for salaries up to 15,000 kronor a month.

– The lower threshold for state income tax should be raised from 36,900 to 37,400 kronor. 

– Chemical taxes should be introduced on flame retardants in electronics products such as refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers, washing machines, dryers and computers.

Lööf made it clear that she wanted reforms in the job market to help cut unemployment and allow more people to change professions.

She said she continued to back Sweden's open approach to immigration.

8.00pm

Centre Party leader Annie Lööf is now being quizzed by Swedish media about her speech by Swedish public broadcaster SVT, which is hosting a debate programme live from Almedalen.


Photo: TT

7.55pm

If you're just joining us, welcome to The Local's live blog from Almedalen, Sweden's annual political conference.

Each day a different party leader will take to the stage in Almedalen park on the island of Gotland.

Annie Lööf has just been speaking for the Centre Party, which currently has 22 seats in the Swedish parliament.

The party has rural roots, emerging from Sweden's Farmers' League, which was set up more than one hundred years ago. Agricultural issues remain key concerns alongside allowing local communities to make their own decisions. More recently the party has tried to attract urban voters by promising help for small businesses. 

7.52pm

Political analysts are now rushing to share their thoughts on Lööf's speech on social media and on Swedish news websites.

Most agree that the Centre Party leader did not sway far from her party's traditional ideals and themes.

However her focus on green taxes and environmental issues suggests that she is perhaps making a play for disillusioned Green Party voters.

7.43pm

Lööf has concluded her speech to a standing ovation and been given a bunch of flowers, as is standard practice at major political events in Sweden. Her supporters are waving banners and green balloons.

7.37pm

Several political commentators have noted that Lööf has dedicated quite a lot of her speech to green issues, including raising taxes on certain household chemicals.

“The bourgeoisie must stop dodging environmental issues,” she told the crowd a few moments ago, to a large applause.

Lööf has also said she wants to defend Sweden's “open society” but argued that much more must be done to improve the integration of the growing number of asylum seekers arriving in the Nordic nation.

7.32pm

Lööf has also been talking about pensioners and how she is personally concerned for elderly relatives and wants to make life “more bearable” for them. Her party is in favour of more choice when it comes to healthcare and welfare, she has said.

One policy her party is mooting is giving anyone over 75 a set number of hours a month to get state help with “whatever they need”. For example being taken for a walk, being accompanied on a grocery shop or getting cleaning assistance.

 

7.31pm

The Local's Commercial Content Editor David Landes is watching Lööf's speech and just tweeted this photo.

7.28pm

So far, so expected. Lööf is sticking to the issues outlined in the Centre Party's policy document which was released earlier in Sunday.

The paper calls for tax cuts for small businesses, an increase in the threshold for income tax and tax hikes on electrical goods such as computers and washing machines.

7.27pm

Lööf is addressing Sweden's rising inequality. She says that under the Alliance government, the average family saw its household budget rise. But she notes that in four out of ten Swedish homes there is still not enough cash left at the end of the month to save anything. Lööf says her party wants to lower income tax.

7.25pm

According to Lööf, more shorter training courses should be available to help people who want to change careers or return to further education. This approach was a key policy of the previous Alliance government.

7.20pm

Here's what Annie Lööf looks like up on the stage. Right now she's talking about how the Centre Party would improve jobs training in Sweden.


Photo: TT

7.15pm

Wearing a hot pink dress and a navy jacket, Lööf has a captive audience. She's focusing on criticising the government's jobs policies.

The leader has accused Prime Minister Stefan Löfven of dressing up '90s politics in new clothes and offering too many trainee posts to unemployed people instead of real jobs.

7.10pm

If you're new to Swedish politics here are a few facts about Lööf, who is 31. She became MP for Jönköping County in southern Sweden when she was just 23 years old and was selected to become leader of the party in 2011. She has a degree in law and lives in Nacka, Stockholm. In April she announced that she and her husband, Carl-Johan Lööf, were due to have a baby in autumn.

7.07pm

Lööf has talked about the strong bonds between her party and the other centre-right Alliance groups that made up the previous government, led by former Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. She's drawn comparisons to the trees that have been growing at Almedalen for many years and remain strong.

“Some say it was better before. I can agree that it was better before September last year,” she has told the crowd.

But she has also suggested that the Alliance parties need to be more self-critical.

7.02pm

Annie Lööf has taken to the stage. She was welcomed by huge cheers from supporters enjoying the evening sunshine on Gotland.  

6.53pm 

Centre Party leader Annie Lööf is set to make her keynote speech in less than ten minutes. She'll be the first party leader to take to the stage during Almedalen 2015.

4.20pm

Swedish newspaper Expressen has also been talking to Centre Party leader, Annie Lööf, ahead of her speech this evening. She said that she will attack the government, and especially Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, on his jobs policies.

“Löfven talks about jobs, jobs, jobs,” she said.

“But when it comes down to it, he chooses every time to raise taxes on jobs, jobs, jobs. Even the government's own experts, the Fiscal Policy Council, says that government policies will reduce employment by up to 30,000 people.”

The government’s coalition partners, the Green Party, will also come under fire from Lööf.

“The Social Democrats and the Green Party in government is something of an unholy alliance against jobs. The Green Party's ideas of zero growth coupled with Löfven’s tax on jobs and entrepreneurship is a toxic combination that will hold Sweden back.”

Strong stuff from Lööf, pictured below arriving at Almedalen this morning. We'll bring you the highlights from her speech which gets underway at 7pm.


Photo: TT

12.47pm

Swedish newspaper Expressen has been put together a list of the top 150 movers and shakers at Almedalen. Here are its top 20 power players (in Swedish, but with plenty of guess-the-Swede photos to help you out).

10.52am

The Centre Party is in focus throughout Sunday.

It has produced a policy document calling for tax cuts for small businesses, an increase in the threshold for income tax and tax hikes on electrical goods such as computers and washing machines.

The details of it's wish-list should it re-gain a place in government are:

Small business owners will not have to pay payroll tax for their first employee during the first two years for salaries up to 15,000 kronor. Companies can only use the tax break once. Estimated cost: 2.6 billion kronor

Raise the lower threshold for state income tax of 36,900 to 37,400 kronor. Estimated cost: 1.3 billion kronor

Chemical taxes on flame retardants in electronics products such as refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers, washing machines, dryers and computers.Tax increases of 3.5 billion kronor

Centre Party leader Annie Lööf is selling the tax increases as a new kind of green tax.

“Sweden is an environmental role model in the world. We have been able to reduce the tax burden on jobs and business, thus strengthening our growth. At the same time, we have reduced our emissions. The proposed tax on flame retardants in electronic products is a green tax.”

READ ALSO: The Local's ultimate guide to Sweden's political leaders

10.37am

There's a huge amount of preparation that goes into putting this week together. Here's what one corner of the site looked like yesterday afternoon.


Photo: TT

10.20am

Almedalen takes place in Visby, on the island of Gotland. It's a stunning location for a conference.

Here's what it looked like on Saturday.


Photo: TT

Politicians can look forward to a week of sunshine if forecasters are right. Temperatures are set to be between 18 and 22C for the more than 20,000 people expected to attend the annual event.

Click here to check the full weather forecast for Almedalen or your region of Sweden

10.00am

Welcome to The Local's live coverage of Almedalen, the biggest event of the year in Swedish politics. Click here to find out why it's worth following our coverage throughout the week, whether you work in business, education or the not-for-profit sector or are simply spying on Swedish news from afar.

In short, Almedalan packs every Swedish political party's annual conference into eight days.

The Centre Party kicks off this year's gathering. Events are taking place throughout Sunday, with leader Annie Lööf taking to the stage at 7pm.

POLITICS IN SWEDEN

OPINION: Is Sweden complacent about social media influence of the radical-right?

With the think tank linked to the Sweden Democrats openly recruiting the next generation of far-right social media 'influencers', why is Sweden so complacent about moves to shift public opinion to the radical right, asks The Local's Nordic editor Richard Orange.

OPINION: Is Sweden complacent about social media influence of the radical-right?

The radical right in Sweden is at least open about what it’s trying to do.

The homepage of Oikos, the think tank set up by Mattias Karlsson, the former right-hand man of Jimmie Åkesson, leader of the Sweden Democrats, is currently recruiting the first 15 of “a new generation” of “conservative” online propagandists. 

The think tank – whose controlling foundation has been criticised for refusing to reveal the true origin of 5 million kronor in funding – this week launched its new Illustra Academy, which aims to train an army of young, far-right “creators” to help win over minds on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. 

Successful applicants, it promises, will get the chance “to meet leading actors in social media and digital political influencing”.

They will get “mentorship from established political influencers”, build “valuable contacts with influencers, digital opinion-makers, creatives, politicians and possible future employers”, and meet “businesses, political organisations, communications agencies and media actors”. 

This programme is being set up by Andreas Palmlöv, one of the many top Sweden Democrats who went to the US after Donald Trump was elected president to work for an increasingly radicalised Republican Party, serving as an intern for the former Speaker of Congress Kevin McCarthy.

After his return to Sweden, Palmlöv was photographed meeting Gregg Keller, a US lobbyist he says he met through the Leadership Institute, an organisation backed by a who’s who of US billionaire donors which has over the past ten years spent 8 million kronor training up young “conservatives” in Europe.

Karlsson, Åkesson’s former right-hand man, has even closer links to the US, holding at least one meeting with Steve Bannon, Trump’s former strategist, and attending the wedding of the pro-Trump US conservative media profile Candace Owens in 2019.   

As a British citizen, I’m perhaps overly sensitive about the influence of conservative, libertarian donors and their think tanks, and of the efforts to use social media to push public opinion towards the radical right. 

Vote Leave, which led the campaign for the UK to leave the European Union, started its life at 55 Tufton Street, the townhouse near the UK Parliament where the country’s most powerful “dark money” think tanks are based, while Matthew Elliot, its chief executive, was a Tufton Street veteran. 

Since the UK left the EU, the ruling Conservative Party has been increasingly captured by these think tanks and their wealthy backers.   

Ministers, former ministers and Conservative MPs now happily speak alongside radical right figures at lavish conferences like the National Conservatism UK conference part-funded by Christian pro-Trump US foundations, or the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference part-funded by Paul Marshall and Christopher Chandler, the two billionaires who are the most open and prominent funders of attempts to shift the UK to the radical, libertarian right. 

Conservative MPs and former ministers have over the past two years been paid a total of £600,000 (8 million kronor) to appear on GB News, the Fox News clone jointly owned by Marshall and Chandler.

The Legatum Institute, Chandler’s own think tank, pretty much dictated the UK’s Brexit policy while Boris Johnson was prime minister, while during Liz Truss’s brief premiership, the Tufton Street think tanks supplied much of her team.

When her attempt to drive through their radical libertarian economic programme blew up spectacularly, she was forced to resign. But they haven’t given up, with Truss returning in February with the new Popular Conservatism group. 

I had always believed that the UK politics was immune to US levels of big donor influence, that the Conservative Party could never go the way of the Republican Party in the US, and it turns out I was wrong. 

So is that same naivety playing out in Sweden? 

The Oikos think tank has already started hosting international conservative conferences along the lines of ARC, with a conference at the Sundbyholms Slott castle outside Eskilstuna last year. 

When Social Democrat opposition leader Magdalena Andersson raised questions earlier this year about the funding of Henrik Jönsson, a popular YouTube debater, she was sharply criticised by commentators of both left and right for seeking to smear a critic without providing evidence

But in the US, there are billionaire-funded ‘educational’ YouTube channels like PragerU that follow a very similar format to Jönsson’s. Jönsson’s videos reliably follow the same talking points, questioning whether global warming is really causing extreme weather, spread disinformation about wind farms, call for Sweden’s public broadcasters to be abolished, and claim migrants have trashed the economy. 

And when a donor last year asked Gunnar Strömmer, now Sweden’s Justice Minister, how to give 350,000 kronor to the Moderates without having to identify himself under party financing laws, in part of a sting by TV4’s Kalla Fakta programme, Strömmer advised him to give it directly to right-wing “opinion-makers”, meaning, presumably, people like Jönsson. 

Despite the uproar, Jönsson has never explicitly denied receiving funding from outside organisations, only that such funding does not influence his output. 

“I am quite open about the fact that I willingly take money from all decent organisations and private individuals,” he told the Dagens ETC newspaper, while declining to give any further details. “But no one controls what I say,” he added. 

He has admitted that the website for his Energiupproret campaign, which blamed green policy and the shutdown of nuclear power stations for high power prices in the run-up to the 2022 election, was built by Näringslivets Mediaservice, a right wing social media outfit the precise funding of which was always unclear, although it was linked to Stiftelsen Svenskt Näringsliv, a foundation set up partly by the Confederation of Swedish Industry. 

The founders of Oikos’ new influencer education programme would probably argue that nothing is stopping the political left and centre from raising funds to train up young social media influencers in exactly the same way. 

Left-wing parties are not above taking donations. Approached by the same donor as part of the Kalla Fakta undercover report, representatives of the centre-left Social Democrats – as well as the Christian Democrats, Liberals, and Sweden Democrats on the right – also recommended ways around party finance laws.

But do we really want the UK or Sweden to follow the path the US has taken in recent decades, where a handful of billionaires with radical right opinions have aggressively pumped money into think tanks and media outfits and so succeeded in pushing one of the main parties towards previously fringe political opinions? 

It didn’t need to be this way.

When Sweden was developing its new party financing laws back in 2016, experts warned the then government must not to allow the identity of donors to be hidden behind foundations, the key method used by so-called dark money in the US, but the loophole was left open by the law.

It’s not just Oikos, which is funded by an opaque foundation, Insamlingsstiftelsen för Svensk Konservatism (The Fundraising Foundation for Swedish Conservatism), which uses this loophole. 

When caught in the sting by the Kalla Fakta programme, a Social Democrat also suggested that the donor set up a foundation to hide their identity. 

It may be that money from US billionaires, big companies, or indeed from other states, is not yet being spent in Sweden in a way that can alter the political landscape, but because neither think tanks nor influencers need to give much information about who funds them, it’s impossible to know. 

In the UK, the danger may soon be averted. No one seems to take the new outfit fronted by Liz Truss too seriously, and the general election later this year should offer the chance to clean up the country’s politics.  

Nonetheless, I feel like I’ve come very close to losing my original homeland to the kind of political developments seen in the US. I don’t want to lose my adopted country too.

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