SVT's party leader debate ended with the party leaders being asked if the USA under President Donald Trump is heading in an authoritarian direction.
The party leaders for S, V, MP, L answered yes. M and C abstained. Only SD leader Jimmie Åkesson answered no.
A folkvald administration is in place, acting within the framework of the constitution. As long as it does so, it's going very far to say that it's heading in an authoritarian direction, it's essentially saying that it's on its way to becoming a dictatorship, says.
However, I think Donald Trump appears to be an unsympathetic figure who does a lot of bad things also for us here in Sweden and in Europe.
Pressed yellow
Åkesson, however, nuanced his answer and stated that he also sees tendencies towards an authoritarian direction.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (M) explained why he didn't want to answer yes or no, saying he always puts Sweden's interests first.
S leader Magdalena Andersson thinks it's hard to answer other than yes to the question.
They have a president who obviously lacks a democratic backbone, she said.
The new party leader of the Centre, Anna Karin Hatt, like Ulf Kristersson, abstained from answering yes or no.
The USA is larger than the White House. That Trump behaves completely unacceptably and has not only authoritarian tendencies is beyond doubt, she says.
I still want to believe that there are robust democratic institutions.
"Completely outrageous"
The triple murder in Uppsala got the party leader debate on SVT to heat up earlier in the evening.
You stand at your press conferences and nothing happens, said the Left Party's Nooshi Dadgostar to the Tidö parties.
This got KD leader Ebba Busch to protest against the "disrespectful" and "flippant" tone.
But V leader continued to criticize the government for lowering taxes for the rich when so many new teachers and social workers need to be employed to prevent young people from becoming criminals.
Three young lives are brutally extinguished in Uppsala and you make it into a right-left issue about taxes. It's completely outrageous, said Busch.
Ulf Kristersson (M) accused the opposition of taking every chance to avoid talking about their "lax" criminal policy.
Magdalena Andersson (S) protested and pointed out that her party, among other things, has proposed that every young person on the verge of a life of crime should be pinpointed.
SD leader Jimmie Åkesson claimed that the government's policy will lead to 30,000-40,000 criminals being in prison in ten years, compared to a few years ago.
This is prevention in reality.
