Social Democrats Offer to Halt Teen Deportations to Win Power
Magdalena Andersson has handed the Centre Party a package of around a hundred proposals to form a left-leaning government - including an end to teen and skilled-worker deportations. If the Centre Party says no, she says only a Social Democrat-Moderate government remains.
STOCKHOLM - Sweden's Social Democrats have put a price on power - and part of it would be paid by rolling back the outgoing government's migration policy.
Several Swedish newsrooms have seen the party's full offer to the Centre Party. Expressen describes a document with around a hundred policy proposals. According to public broadcaster SVT, they include an end to deportations of teenagers and of skilled foreign workers.
At the same time, party leader Magdalena Andersson is making a blunt threat. If the Centre Party does not back her preferred government, she says the only option left is a government in which her Social Democrats and the Moderates rule together.
The package was handed to Centre Party leader Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist on Friday, after she demanded answers by 5 pm on policy, coalition partners and parliamentary support.
"Not dependent on the Sweden Democrats"
In an op-ed in Expressen on Saturday, Andersson repeated that she wants to form a government of the Social Democrats, the Centre Party and the Greens, cooperating with the Left Party. She claims that model respects the Centre Party's two red lines and has a majority in parliament.
If that fails, she says, only a Social Democrat-Moderate government is left - one that would not rely on the Sweden Democrats.
"If such a government option does not come together, only a government that includes both the Social Democrats and the Moderates has the conditions to work in practice, take responsibility for Sweden and not be dependent on the Sweden Democrats," she writes.
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Expressen and SVT say they have seen the document. The Social Democrats, the Centre Party and the Greens have not confirmed the leaked points. According to SVT's sources, the Greens do not stand behind the entire offer.
Several of the most sensitive proposals would break with the migration policy of the outgoing right-wing government and its Tidö agreement with the Sweden Democrats.
What the package reportedly contains
Aftonbladet lists 15 points from the package and notes that several are close to the Centre Party's own earlier demands on forestry, farming and public broadcasting. Among the points reported by SVT, Expressen, Aftonbladet and TV4:
- An end to deportations of teenagers and skilled workers, and softer income requirements for parents of minors.
- New "reasonable" rules for labour migration and a "fresh start year" to speed up the integration of foreign-born residents.
- A ban on profits in schools and preschools, scrapping the unpaid first sick day and a new workers' pension.
- Raising the age of criminal responsibility back to 15. The current government lowered it to 14 in September.
- More rural police offices and double sentences for those who recruit children into crime.
- Constitutional protection for forest ownership and for public service broadcasting.
- More Swedish food in the public sector and a target of 80 percent food self-sufficiency.
Left Party rejects Andersson's version
Andersson writes that the Left Party has made clear it is ready to join negotiations if the Centre Party picks the Social Democrat offer. Yet the Social Democrats want to keep the Left Party out of government, even though it has demanded cabinet posts and its votes are needed for a red-green majority.
Left Party deputy leader Ida Gabrielsson rejects that picture in a written comment to Dagens Nyheter.
"The interpretation of Magdalena Andersson's article in Expressen that we would be willing to negotiate away our demand to be in government is wrong. We are, however, prepared to continue the earlier four-party talks if the Centre Party chooses the Social Democrat option," she writes.
That matches what party leader Nooshi Dadgostar said on Thursday: the Left Party will negotiate if the Centre Party picks the red-green side, but it will not drop its demand for ministerial posts.
Social Democrat economic policy spokesman Mikael Damberg told news agency TT that his party will go into hard opposition if the Centre Party chooses Ulf Kristersson's offer.
"A Tidö 2 government will be completely dependent on the Sweden Democrats on every single issue," he said.
Centre Party to give its answer
Thand Ringqvist confirmed on Friday that she has received both offers. She says the party will go through them carefully and that it wants to limit the influence of the political fringes on Swedish politics.
Kristersson's offer, delivered on Friday, is a government of the former centre-right Alliance parties - the Moderates, the Centre Party, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals. It would lack a majority of its own and would need the Sweden Democrats to let it take office.
According to Swedish Radio, the Centre Party has called a press conference for Monday.
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Simon Kristoffersson · Responsible Publisher & Senior Editor (Ansvarig utgivare)
Simon Kristoffersson is the Legally Responsible Publisher (Ansvarig utgivare) and Senior Investigative Editor of Samnytt and Samnytt News under Sweden's Constitutional Freedom of the Press Act, specializing in courts, organized crime, municipal governance, and public-sector investigations.
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