There have been many politicians speaking their outrage over the violent crimes that have made the papers recently – see yesterday’s post. But they’re not happy today either. Despite concerted efforts at ignoring, freezing out, shunning and generally speaking ill of the Sweden Democrats, the popularity of party leader Jimmie Åkesson continues unabated. The latest DN/Ipsos poll shows that the number of people who express a strong confidence in – nay, have faith in – Jimmie Åkesson, is at its highest level ever: 27%. ().
Somewhat comforting might be that 68% of respondents say they have no confidence in Jimmie Åkesson. But that is his lowest number ever. As Expressen notes, he now has fewer voters opposed to him than Isabella Lövin, the Green Party leader.
That has just got to hurt.
Stefan Löfven (S) remains at the top with a 40% trusted rating. He is followed by Ebba Busch Thor (KD) at 35% and Ulf Kristersson (M) at 31%. Jonas Sjöstedt (V) and Annie Lööf (C) are neck and neck at 30%. Jimmie comes next with his 27%, followed by the last three: Sabuni (L) at 20% and the two Green Party leaders Lövin and Bolund at 17% and 11% respectively.
Jenny Madestam at Expressen explains the phenomenon by reasoning that Åkesson is a leader with firm principles: “He’s a known quantity – you know where you have him.” Possibly, the razor that is the January Agreement between the left block and members of the right block has cut both ways. Löfven’s average numbers can reflect a lack of enthusiasm for giving in to a chunk of right-block demands, and Lööf’s numbers (down from 41% last September) a reflection of the glitter vest and pompoms she waves around for the Social Democrats.
On the other hand, these numbers can mean very little in the larger scheme of things. Everything can be explained, or explained away. The latter is more likely: As Dagens Nyheter notes, every single party leader has more voters that don’t have faith in them than voters that do (). If that doesn’t take some mental manipulation to handle, nothing does.