Tag: KD

9 Nov. – Christian Democrats’ gather

Ebba Busch Thor at KD’s riksting
pic: expressen.se

The Liberal, Green, Center, Left and Moderate parties along with SD have all had their congresses and the turn has finally come for the Christian Democratic party (Kristdemokraterna) to have theirs, a riksting, now taking place in Umeå.

Since the election in September of last year, support for KD has taken a nosedive, from over 12 % to under 7%. Many have attributed the decrease to when it was revealed that their number one representative in EU, and big party name, Lars Adaktusson voted against pro-choice legislation at the EU – not just once, but repeatedly. Adaktusson’s excuse that he was actually only voting against other issues tacked onto the legislation, not against abortion per se, didn’t cut it with many voters. Their support decrease has also been attributed to KD’s strong support for asylum seekers’ ability to bring over their family members to Sweden (SvD.se/KD).

So far at the congress, Adaktusson has been switched out from his position as second vice chair (although he’ll still be a representative in parliament): They have maintained ever since the scandal came out that a woman’ right to choose has never, ever been a question. As far as refugees bringing over family members (familjåterförening), KD is now taking a harder line, saying that in order to bring family over, the person in Sweden must prove that they can support them economically .

New proposals discussed at the congress also include supporting a language test as well as a so called civics (samhällskunskap) test that need to be passed in order to qualify for permanent residency and/or citizenship. For many people, this is considered a completely unreasonable thing to ask of refugees: Among other reasons, many people believe that immigrants should not have to face a test that other people in the country have not had to face. Having to pass a language test is an old proposal that the Liberal party tried to get support for back in 2002, but which failed badly. One of the parties against the language test back then was the Christian Democrats, arguing that you didn’t need to speak Swedish to be a good citizen (SvD.se/language).

Times have clearly changed. In this round, Soheila Fors, a representative from the women’s caucus, argued that an immigrant can’t be successful, get a job, or learn what human rights or democracy is about if they can’t speak the language. “We get put into an aquarium” she argued “and are fed by welfare services” (DN.se/KD). In this vein, KD is also in favor of narrowing the right to have the services of a publicly financed interpreter after having lived five years in the country.

The congress continues on Sunday. A debate over allowing begging, as well as the final decisions regarding the above questions, is expected.

25 sep. – Christian Democrats take a powder

pic: facebook.com

The Christian Democratic party struck another nail in the Alliance coffin today when it

  • One: said it would oppose the elimination of the extra wealth tax (värnskatt), a suggestion put forward, and pushed through in the 2020 budget, by KD’s former fellow alliance parties, the Center and Liberal parties, and even its current friend the Moderate party, and
  • Two: said it wouldn’t bother writing up a shadow budget together with the Moderate party.

Not liking the elimination of the extra wealth tax is pretty common. After all, it gives a huge tax break to the people who least need a tax break. It shouldn’t be forgotten, however, that the tax was supposed to be temporary, and, it was based on a crisis in the Swedish economy that has since been more than cleared up. The extra wealth tax has no legitimacy because the factors for which it was set up to help out with no longer exist. By all means, tax wealthy people because they’re wealthy if that seems fair to people, but at least be honest about it.

Right now, the extra wealth tax goes straight into the ginormous tax pot that the ruling parties can use as they will, without saying anything more specific. The Christian Democrats are saying no to its elimination because they – like no one else, they say – would use the money exclusively for health and welfare.

This would be great if the Christian Democrats had any say whatsoever in where the governments spends your tax money, but they don’t. They’re saying it to to look good, but it in fact what they’re saying has all the value of a selfie. It’s likely also a jab at the Center and Liberal parties for cooperating with the Social Democrats and Green parties. Here the Christian Democrats are saying “look at these awful center-left parties that would give a tax break to rich people – we certainly wouldn’t” when they certainly would have, if they had won the election.

In more Christian Democratic news (reminder, they have a whopping 7% of the popular vote, but we’ll headline them here anyway) they’re backing out of writing a shadow budget with the Moderate party because there isn’t a chance it will win: “…because it’s hard to get [our budget] through, it isn’t meaningful to do it” Christian Democratic party leader Ebba Busch Thor explains ().

She has a point, in that there isn’t a chance a budget by the Moderate and Christian Democratic parties would pass, but she’s missing the point that by not creating a budget along with the Moderate party, she’s not even showing up. Voters are given no thoughtful alternative to the Social Democratic and Green party budget, and can just as well go back to bed. Unless they come out with their own budget, which they might well do in the next while, one can wonder if the party is making itself deserving of the mandate it won and the power it desires.