Swedish ruling parties divided over potential cooperation with ID group

5 months ago 16

Members of Sweden’s right-wing coalition are split over whether to cooperate with the far-right ID group after the European elections, as some have indicated serious interest in doing so, while Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson of the centre-right Moderate Party (EPP) dismissed such a move on Tuesday.

Sweden’s governing coalition -which includes the Moderates (EPP), the Christian Democrats (EPP), and the Liberals (Renew), supported by the far-right Sweden Democrats (ECR)- is divided over who to cooperate with after the EU elections.

“I don’t think it will be relevant at all,” said Kristersson, adding that cooperation with a group harbouring pro-Russian parties is “incredibly difficult to imagine”.

“I don’t think it will be relevant at all,” he added.

On the side of its coalition partner, the Christian Democratic Party, the party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Bisch told Afonbladet in an interview on Monday that her party may consider cooperating with pro-Russian parties on the far right like those in the EU group ID.

However, such cooperation could not be on issues that would undermine the party’s support for Ukraine, she added.

“For us, it is the substance that counts. I find it very difficult to imagine that we will do business with parties that do not support Ukraine and do not stand up against anti-Semitism,” Busch told Swedish broadcaster SVT on Tuesday.

“If we can have the same views on certain issues – yes, and then the parties can make common cause by voting the same way – but no permanent cooperation, i.e. negotiations where we move and compromise on our values,” the deputy prime minister wrote later on X.

Charlie Weimers of the far-right Sweden Democrats (ECR) has also said in the past that cooperation with the ID parties could be possible, except when it comes to Ukraine.

“Not on Russia and Ukraine,” he told SVT on Tuesday.

“But if we don’t want the Social Democrats to have a decisive influence on migration policy, we must find forms of cooperation even with parties we disagree with on Russia,” Weimers added.

While a right-wing majority of the EPP, ECR and the far-right ID is unlikely, right-wing forces could still work together on specific issues in the next legislature, as they did in the past when they joined forces to oppose the EU’s Nature Restoration Law.

(Charles Szumski | Euractiv.com)