V to SD: Don’t Become the Riksdag’s New Doormat, Gabrielsson Says

Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson's (M) neutral, election-promise-free transitional budget did not spark much heated debate. Instead, the discussion largely focused on what the budget could have included if the parties had managed to form a new government in time.

Gabrielsson, deputy party leader of V, said she wished the four red-green parties had formed a government with a Social Democratic finance minister.

Together we could have delivered what we promised the voters, she said.

The seriousness of the moment

If there is a red-green government, Gabrielsson said, V understands that her party will not get everything it wants to implement.

It is true that the election results have not given the go-ahead for a total shift to the left, because the Center Party's mandate is also needed, she said.

Martin Ådahl of the Center Party urged “everyone who really wants to take responsibility for Sweden” to recognize the seriousness of the moment.

A wise center-right policy is needed for Sweden, one that boosts jobs, businesses, schools and welfare throughout the country, lowers emissions and reduces mental ill health, he said.

Gabrielsson warned Ådahl that a bourgeois government comprising M, KD, L and C would see its budget proposals lose to a joint budget alternative from S, V and MP.

So a total shift to the left - I find it hard to believe that any of them want that. It is clear that their budget will become dependent on SD, she said.

The new doormat?

Gabrielsson assumed that the Sweden Democrats would not become what she called the Riksdag's “new doormat” by supporting a bourgeois budget without negotiating its content.

I myself, with such experiences, can say that it is not a pleasant position, she said.

SD's Henrik Vinge said the party's door was open to anyone who wanted to discuss the way forward for Sweden.

There may be a need for a government to anchor its policy with a major party in the day of risk, he said.

Neither the Social Democrats' economic policy spokesperson Mikael Damberg nor his Green Party counterpart Janine Alm Ericson took part in the debate.