Ekeroth: "The Moderates' Incomprehensible Love for the Social Democrats"

EDITORIAL • The Tidö parties have accomplished an incredible amount of good over these four years. Everything from criminal policy and migration to taxes, regulatory simplifications, and much more. In my eyes, this is the best government Sweden has had since the introduction of democracy — largely thanks to the significant influence of the Sweden Democrats (SD). But one question continues to nag: Why do the Moderates keep appointing Social Democrats and other political opponents to various influential positions?

This is not the first time I have complained about how the three bourgeois parties, led by the Moderates, repeatedly undermine their own rule by appointing Social Democratic party loyalists or blatantly unsuitable people to head important agencies.

Take Maria Mindhammar, who was appointed Director-General of the Swedish Migration Agency in 2023. Previously, the Social Democrats had appointed her Director-General of the Public Employment Service to implement their labor market policies. She still remains in post despite the scandal where the agency, in anticipation of changes to citizenship rules, started working overtime to push through citizenships.

Why?

Or the head of Brå, Jonas Trolle. He was appointed by the government in June 2025 and is thus the top official of the authority that provides politicians, police, and the judiciary with data on crime and criminality. The same Trolle openly supported a Social Democratic proposal for the forced mixing of residential areas.

Not in a private conversation. Not in an anonymous memo. But in Swedish media. Publicly. Deliberately.

Why was he appointed—and why is he still in post?

More Oddities

The government also appointed Mari Heidenborg as President of the Svea Court of Appeal. She was formerly the Chancellor of Justice and became notorious for discarding the basis behind a substantial damages award she decided on for a rapist. She was also chief architect behind the so-called “consent law” — legislation that has made judicial review highly arbitrary and legally uncertain.

Why?

The government also appointed Petra Lundh as National Police Commissioner in autumn 2023. She is a member of the Hilda network and attracted attention when she was brought to tears on television while talking about organized crime.

Why?

Social Democratic Party Loyalist to Beirut

And now we see how, just a couple of weeks ago, the government appointed Tomas Brundin as ambassador to Beirut.

Who is Brundin? Well, a Palestine activist and former international secretary for Social Democrats for Faith and Solidarity.

Faith and Solidarity was formerly known as the Brotherhood Movement, the Social Democratic organization that in 1999 signed a cooperation agreement with the Swedish Muslim Council, SMR, in which The Islamic Association in Sweden (IFiS) was a central part. The agreement, among other things, aimed to promote increased political influence for Muslims.

Why?

When Will They Realize?

It is obvious that the Moderates in recent years have made a giant U-turn compared to the Reinfeldt era. At the same time, virtually every one of today’s prominent Moderates was a loyal Reinfeldt supporter. Johan Forsell, Ulf Kristersson, Carl-Oskar Bohlin, and several others all distanced themselves strongly from SD and described its representatives with all sorts of negative labels. They advocated mass immigration and the whole package.

But in the political craft, I suppose that’s water under the bridge. With SD’s influence, they are now accomplishing a lot of good. Fair enough.

All the more fascinating is their continued eagerness to appease the Social Democrats by appointing people who are either full-blooded Social Democrats or at least social democratic in their manner and values.

It signals a lack of understanding of what really needs to be done and the extent of the problems Social Democratic policies have caused Sweden. Or, it shows that the veneer of change within the Moderates is in fact thinner than many want to believe. Who knows.

Here again, it seems that only SD has caught on, as I noted in another editorial recently.

Likewise, it is astonishing that the Moderates do not seem to understand the importance of stemming demographic developments—and not continuing to push out large numbers of citizenships to groups whose votes mainly go to the Social Democrats.

Why do they keep feeding their political opponents?

If the Tidö parties win the election in September, it’s high time that more than just SD understand that a change of government is not only about bills, budgets, and new laws. It’s also about which people have the power to implement policy, lead the agencies, and shape the state for many years to come.

That’s also why SD’s entry into such a government becomes so important. Not just to get the right policies on paper, but to ensure that the same change permeates the decision-making processes, agency appointments, and the state apparatus at large.

It’s not enough to change policies if you allow the same old political establishment to continue running the institutions.

If Sweden is to change for real, the power behind the politics must change as well.