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What Sweden’s new coronavirus cash boost means for healthcare services

Sweden's centre-left government and its parliamentary allies have pledged to hand out billions of kronor to healthcare and elderly care, in a series of new investments to boost a welfare sector battered by the corona pandemic.

Published: 7 September 2020 10:34 CEST
Updated: 7 September 2020 18:10 CEST
What Sweden's new coronavirus cash boost means for healthcare services
Prime Minister Stefan Löfven and Centre Party leader Annie Lööf at a joint press conference on Monday. Photo: Pontus Lundahl/TT

“It is, if you pardon me, a heck of an investment in welfare,” said Prime Minister Stefan Löfven as he presented the new proposal at a joint press conference with Centre Party leader Annie Lööf on Monday morning.

Work to hammer out Sweden's next budget is under way between the Social Democrat-Green coalition government and the Centre and Liberals, and it is set to be a more important task than ever as the country attempts to kick-start its economy and jobs in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

The full budget is scheduled to be presented to parliament later this month, but news about various proposals usually trickles out in dribs and drabs in the weeks leading up to the big day, and today was one such day.

The government's budget proposal will earmark a permanent annual investment of four billion kronor (approximately $458 million) to boosting elderly care, as well as an additional 1.7 billion kronor which will be added on top of a previously advertised package designed to drive new and skilled staff to elderly care. In total, that means that Sweden's elderly care sector will altogether receive 7.4 billion kronor in 2021.

Four billion kronor per year will also be injected into Sweden's healthcare sector over the next two years, to help plug the gap of a 'healthcare deficit' as a result of planned surgeries being postponed during the coronavirus crisis. The money can also be used for coronavirus-related medical care.

The four parties involved in the budget negotiations – set out in the so-called January Agreement which enabled the Social Democrats and Greens to take office in 2019 – also propose increasing the funding for Sweden's 290 municipalities and 21 regions in general. That includes a cash boost of 10 billion kronor next year and five billion in 2022, of which 70 percent will be added to the coffers of municipalities and 30 percent to regions.

In total, the proposal presented on Monday includes investments in the welfare state to the tune of 19.7 billion kronor to be handed to Sweden's local and regional authorities in 2021, said Lööf.

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POLITICS IN SWEDEN

Politics in Sweden: This year’s EU election will be a white-knuckle ride for smaller parties

With as many as three of Sweden's parties at risk of being kicked out of the European parliament, the stakes in this year's European elections are higher perhaps than ever before.

Published: 6 May 2024 16:12 CEST

According to the latest polling by Verian for Swedish public broadcaster SVT, one party – the Liberals – is already polling below the formal four percent threshold to enter the European Parliament, but two more, the Christian Democrats and the Centre Party, are worryingly close, with each polling at both 4.5 percent. 

If the poll is right, the Social Democrats are set to be the big winners in the election, gaining two additional seats, while the Left Party and the far-right Sweden Democrats are both in line to gain one additional seat.

But as well as the Liberal Party, the Centre Party, Christian Democrats, and Green Party all set to lose one seat each, but as they each currently have more than one seat, they will nonetheless keep their representation in parliament. 

Tommy Möller, a professor of politics at Stockholm University, told the TT newswire that the two parties likely to be the most worried ahead of election day on June 9th are the Liberals and the Centre Party. 

For the Liberals, it matters partly because it has long seen itself as Sweden's most pro-EU party. At its highpoint 15 years ago, it had three seats in the EU parliament, but it sank to just one in the 2020 European elections.

If the party were now to lose the last of its seats, the leadership of party chairman Johan Persson, Möller argued, would be put into question. 

"This could prompt an internal debate on party leadership," he told the TT newswire. "There's no doubt that if the Liberals, who (...) promote themselves as the most pro-EU party, lost its mandate, it would be a massive blow."  

He said he would also not rule out a leadership challenge against the Centre Party's leader Muharrem Demirok should his party lose both its seats in the EU parliament, given how badly he has struggled as leader to gain any visibility with voters .

"Obviously the Centre Party is fighting an uphill battle in the opinion polls. If it loses its seat, that would obviously add to the lack of confidence in the party leader, which could prompt an internal leadership debate," Möller said. 

For the Christian Democrats, the Verian poll is in some ways encouraging. Thus far the indications are that Folklistan, the party formed by the former Christian Democrat MEP Sara Skyttedal, is far below the 4 percent threshold, with only an estimated 1.5 percent of the vote.

While it is no doubt nibbling away at Christian Democrat support, it has so far not managed to drag the party down to the 4 percent threshold. 

Möller said he did not expect anyone to call for party leader Ebba Busch to stand down, almost regardless of the result.  

"I don't think there will be calls for her resignation, but obviously, the mandate you have as a leader is always linked to how well its going for the party in opinion polls and elections," he said.  

Return of the Greens?

Even though they are projected to lose one of their seats, if the Green Party succeeds in winning 9.5 percent of the vote on June 9th, as the polls suggest, it will still be seen as decent result, showing that the party, which has been struggling in domestic politics, at least does well in the EU elections.

If the party retains its third seat, it will be seen as a resounding victory. 

According to a popularity poll by the Aftonbladet newspaper, the party's lead MEP, Alice Bah Kuhnke, is both the second most popular politician standing in the election and the most unpopular, reflecting just how polarising party has become in Sweden. 

In the poll, 30 percent of respondents said they had high or very high confidence in Bah Kuhnke, second only to the Left Party's candidate and former leader, Jonas Sjöstedt, on 42 percent. But at the same time, 64 percent of respondents said they had "low confidence" in her.  

According to Johan Martinsson, the head of opinion research at Demoskop, who carried out the poll, this should not worry the Greens too much.

"As long as the relevant group of voters have a large amount of confidence, it doesn't really make any difference if you are despised by those who oppose you. It can almost be a good thing as it makes it easier to get attention."

Could the election mark a turnaround for the party, which has voted in two new leaders this year? 

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