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Moderate opposition leader Anna Kinberg Batra resigns

Anna Kinberg Batra, the leader of Sweden's main opposition party, has said she will step down, with just over one year to go to the general election.

Published: 25 August 2017 09:39 CEST
Updated: 25 August 2017 11:23 CEST
Moderate opposition leader Anna Kinberg Batra resigns
Anna Kinberg Batra at a press conference on Friday. Photo: Fredrik Sandberg/TT

Kinberg Batra announced her resignation as head of the centre-right Moderates at a morning press conference, saying she had asked the nominating committee to call to an extraordinary meeting to elect a new leader.

The 47-year-old had faced heavy criticism in the past few months with the party plummeting in the polls. Heavy voices within the party, including 11 regional party districts and the Moderate youth wing, had called for her resignation ahead of her announcement on Friday, just months after she survived a previous push. 

She told the press conference it was necessary for her to step aside so that the party could instead focus on issues and on winning back support from the voters in Sweden's general elections in September 2018.

“That is not possible right now. There are too many Moderates doing what can only be described as self-harm,” she said. “I don't think the voters are very impressed.”

ANALYSIS: Where did it all go wrong for Anna Kinberg Batra?

The criticism began after she announced in January that she would be prepared to enter into talks with the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, in an attempt to put pressure on the Swedish government. The move backfired, resulting in dwindling voter support, and questions being raised about what the party stands for.

“It was the right decision. I regret nothing. It is easy being wise in hindsight,” said Kinberg Batra.

“Tackling difficult issues also means taking a few knocks. But I definitely do not regret my choices.”

“It is not obvious that maintaining what political scientists often call the cordon sanitaire around SD would have worked any better for the Moderates,” said political scientist Nicholas Aylott of Södertörn University, looking at the various paths the Moderate leader could have taken in an analysis piece for The Local.

Many had pegged Kinberg Batra to become Sweden's first female prime minister, but she had a tough task taking over from her popular predecessor Fredrik Reinfeldt, who stepped down with high approval ratings despite losing the 2014 election. 

A poll this week suggested only six percent of voters backed her to be the next prime minister, compared to current PM Stefan Löfven's 24 percent.

“I am proud of having been trusted to be party leader and to become the Moderates' first female party leader. I hope that my daughter will live to see Sweden getting its first female prime minister,” said Kinberg Batra.

The other three leaders of Sweden's centre-right opposition, known as the Alliance (Moderates, Centre Party, Liberals, Christian Democrats), were quick to offer their support to Kinberg Batra after her resignation speech.

“I have really appreciated working with Anna,” wrote Centre Party leader Annie Lööf, while Liberal leader Jan Björklund hit out at “coup makers” within the Moderate party and urged it to “close the door to SD”.

Kinberg Batra will remain leader until the party elects her replacement.

For members

WORK PERMITS

Business leaders: Work permit threshold ‘has no place in Swedish labour model’

Sweden's main business group has attacked a proposal to exempt some jobs from a new minimum salary for work permits, saying it is "unacceptable" political interference in the labour model and risks seriously affecting national competitiveness.

Published: 25 April 2024 17:37 CEST
Updated: 26 April 2024 06:11 CEST
Business leaders: Work permit threshold 'has no place in Swedish labour model'

The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise said in its response to the government’s consultation, submitted on Thursday afternoon, that it not only opposed the proposal to raise the minimum salary for a work permit to Sweden’s median salary (currently 34,200 kronor a month), but also opposed plans to exempt some professions from the higher threshold. 

“To place barriers in the way of talent recruitment by bringing in a highly political salary threshold in combination with labour market testing is going to worsen the conditions for Swedish enterprise in both the short and the long term, and risks leading to increased fraud and abuse,” the employer’s group said.   

The group, which represents businesses across most of Sweden’s industries, has been critical of the plans to further raise the salary threshold for work permits from the start, with the organisation’s deputy director general, Karin Johansson, telling The Local this week that more than half of those affected by the higher threshold would be skilled graduate recruits Swedish businesses sorely need.   

But the fact that it has not only rejected the higher salary threshold, but also the proposed system of exemptions, will nonetheless come as a blow to Sweden’s government, and particular the Moderate Party led by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, which has long claimed to be the party of business. 

The confederation complained that the model proposed in the conclusions of the government inquiry published in February would give the government and political parties a powerful new role in setting salary conditions, undermining the country’s treasured system of collective bargaining. 

The proposal for the higher salary threshold, was, the confederation argued, “wrong in principle” and did “not belong in the Swedish labour market”. 

“That the state should decide on the minimum salary for certain foreign employees is an unacceptable interference in the Swedish collective bargaining model, where the parties [unions and employers] weigh up various needs and interested in negotiations,” it wrote. 

In addition, the confederation argued that the proposed system where the Sweden Public Employment Service and the Migration Agency draw up a list of exempted jobs, which would then be vetted by the government, signified the return of the old system of labour market testing which was abolished in 2008.

“The government agency-based labour market testing was scrapped because of it ineffectiveness, and because it was unreasonable that government agencies were given influence over company recruitment,” the confederation wrote. 

“The system meant long handling times, arbitrariness, uncertainty for employers and employees, as well as an indirect union veto,” it added. “Nothing suggests it will work better this time.” 

For a start, it said, the Public Employment Service’s list of professions was inexact and outdated, with only 179 professions listed, compared to 430 monitored by Statistics Sweden. This was particularly the case for new skilled roles within industries like battery manufacturing. 

“New professions or smaller professions are not caught up by the classification system, which among other things is going to make it harder to recruit in sectors which are important for the green industrial transition,” the confederation warned. 

Rather than implement the proposals outlined in the inquiry’s conclusions, it concluded, the government should instead begin work on a new national strategy for international recruitment. 

“Sweden instead needs a national strategy aimed at creating better conditions for Swedish businesses to be able to attract, recruit and retain international competence.”

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