The Social Democrats have presented their election programme with the reforms the party is campaigning on.
The programme includes proposals that will cost the state approximately SEK 65 billion in the next term.
"It is considerably less than what some other parties have made in their election promises," says S's economic policy spokesperson, Mikael Damberg, at a press conference with party leader Magdalena Andersson.
The election programme includes, among other things, the abolition of the job-seeker deduction, an extra child and student allowance for the Christmas and summer holidays, and a maximum limit of 12 students per teacher in primary school.
“The dental care reform of the century”
The proposals are financed, among other things, by raising taxes for those earning over 70,000 kronor a month, reducing school fees for independent schools, and by "stopping the waste of tax money."
The most important part of the financing is to reduce unemployment, because it costs Sweden a lot of money today, Damberg says.
S's new promise in the election programme is about building on the dental care reform that was implemented during the mandate period.
The government has passed a high-cost protection scheme that means people aged 67 or older only pay 10 percent of the reference price for certain dental treatments.
Now S wants to go one step further and include all adults.
"We want to take the next big step in the Social Democratic welfare construction and the Swedish welfare society. We are going to the polls on the dental care reform of the century," says Magdalena Andersson.
Such a reform costs around six billion kronor a year, S estimates. That price tag also includes more places in dental education.
In Sweden, we should be able to go to the dentist without being ruined, she says.
To be done in several stages
The reform will not be able to be implemented in its entirety at once, according to S.
This won't happen overnight. It will have to happen in several steps, but it will become a reality, Andersson says.
The Sweden Democrats and the Left Party are also running for election on a similar dental care reform.
S also wants to reintroduce free dental care for 19-23 year olds, something the government removed during its term.
Regarding the qualifying deduction, the S leader cannot promise that it will be abolished for everyone if the red-greens win the election.
This is an important election promise that we will need to negotiate with other parties, she says.
