We give the committee an opportunity to get to the bottom of these questions, says Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer (M).
TT: Is this not a way to hit a political opponent's financing?
That is not my driving force. There are several legitimate interests at the same time, says Strömmer.
He points out that trade unions should be able to make decisions about how they want to use their funds, while trade union members have a legitimate interest in deciding what their membership fees should be used for.
The Transparency Committee, where all parties are represented, would present a number of proposals on February 15 to increase transparency in party financing. Among other things, they would consider a requirement that individual members of organizations in the labor market must give their consent to a portion of their membership fees going to contributions to a party.
Affects S
Such a law would in practice only affect the Social Democrats, as it is the only Riksdag party that receives contributions from a trade union organization.
But the committee is not expected to present such a proposal on February 15. The reason is that the opposition parties consider it highly uncertain whether it would be compatible with the constitutionally protected freedom of association.
The government wants to present such a legislative proposal anyway and is now giving the committee until May 15 to do so.
You can't just order things from an inquiry. Then we wouldn't have a free inquiry system left in Sweden, says the Social Democrats' group leader in the Riksdag, Lena Hallengren.
She also points out that an inquiry already in 2016 came to the conclusion that the freedom of association is restricted if you legislate about LO's contributions to S.
"An obsession"
The government has some kind of obsession with getting at the opposition's and the Social Democrats' financing, says Hallengren.
She compares it to Hungary, where the government has tried to restrict opponents through legislation in various ways.
That's the path the government is taking, says Hallengren.
According to Strömmer, the committee will develop a model that is in line with the freedom of association.
It's clear that the inquiry will not present a proposal that conflicts with the freedom of association.
But Hallengren doesn't believe it.
You can't order things that are not possible, says she.
