Center Party: No decision on government issue before the election

According to the new C-leader, there is no need to make a decision on which side – the opposition or the government parties – to support and collaborate with until after the election. Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist argues that the demand to make it clear to the voters already is “non-existent”.

In an interview with Svenska Dagbladet, the C-leader says that she leads “a party with Sweden’s best potential, but not everyone likes our business idea”. She believes that the strength of the party lies in reflecting the problems that people experience in their everyday lives.

According to Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist, there are three prime minister candidates: Ulf Kristersson (M), Magdalena Andersson (S), and Jimmie Åkesson (SD). The latter is said to be excluded, as well as Kristersson as long as he is dependent on the Sweden Democrats. Despite only Andersson remaining, she does not want to support the S-leader.

In this matter, Ringqvist differs from her predecessor Anna-Karin Hatt, who promised a decision on the government issue well before the election. The government issue is not something they are working on at all.

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In the 2022 election, the Center Party was the party that lost the most ground, and the post-election analysis concluded that it was due to not giving a clear decision on the government issue. However, Ringqvist considers this conclusion to be outdated today. They believe that next year’s election is not a bloc political election but a party choice.

– When we listen to the voters we talk to and our party members, the demand for us to choose now is non-existent, she tells SvD.

Two weeks ago, she met with Magdalena Andersson during a visit to ABB in Västerås. She has not yet met Kristersson.

Fast-track to citizenship

According to Ringqvist, the party’s migration and integration policy is stricter than most people think, and she believes that if one has not contributed to building a part of the welfare, one cannot benefit from the entire welfare. They want to limit parental leave for newcomers who have settled in Sweden after the child’s first year of life, a measure that is considered particularly important to get foreign-born women into the workforce.

In terms of labor immigration, they want to return to previous regulations and abolish the salary cap introduced by the government. The party also wants to open up for those who have paid 500,000 SEK in taxes over a five-year period to have a fast-track to Swedish citizenship.

However, she does not agree with the government and the Sweden Democrats’ goal to reduce asylum cases to zero, and they want to continue family reunification for children.

– We want order and orderliness – but not an inhumane refugee policy, she says.