Much has happened since 2013 when the Social Democrats last updated their party program. S-leader Magdalena Andersson, pointed out before the decision that society has withdrawn, politics has lost control over social development, gangs have taken over in segregated areas, and the wealthy have been favored by lower taxes and privatizations.
We are taking fairly big steps in this party program, she says after the decision.
The new program means, among other things, that politics should step forward and take back control over social development.
Listening to criticism
Criminal policy has been given more space.
We have also made a clearer focus on improving the material standard of living for ordinary families, says Andersson.
There will also be more focus on strengthening community, primarily through integration policy. According to the original proposal for the party program, a "strict" migration policy was a prerequisite for this.
But even before the debate began on Wednesday evening, the party leadership had listened to critics who did not want to commit to a strict migration policy for as long as a party program applies.
The compromise became a "long-term sustainable migration policy that needs to be strict in the foreseeable future.
Magdalena Andersson does not think that the new formulation implies a significant change compared to the old one, but rather a clarification.
That the strict migration policy remains is not in question, she says.
Dissatisfied representatives
The compromise formulation won clearly in the vote, but there were congress representatives who were not satisfied.
If we are to continue being a party that stands up for all people's equal value, everyone's right to seek asylum and to survive, then it is not a strict migration policy that belongs to the future, said Sara Kukka Salam, chair of the S-association Faith and Solidarity.
Several party districts, including Gothenburg and Skaraborg, wanted to go further in the party program when it comes to profits in the public sector. They wanted to ban profit-making in the entire tax-funded public sector, not just in schools, but lost narrowly when the congress voted.
There is something deeply wrong in someone making money on our children's education, on our sick or on our elderly, said Johanna Svensson, representative from Skaraborg.
