Reference to the European Union should be removed from the Swedish Constitution, according to the powerful far-right Sweden Democrats’ new EU strategy presented in a joint article by party leader Jimmie Åkesson and European Conservatives and Reformists Vice-President Charlie Weimers.
In an article published in the major daily newspaper Aftonbladet, Åkesson of the Sweden Democrats – the country’s second-largest party -and Weimers set the tone for the upcoming EU elections.
In their article, they float the threat of Sweden leaving the European Union to give Stockholm more clout in negotiations where the party believes the country’s interests are being harmed.
In practice, this means removing the phrase “Sweden is part of the European Union” from the Swedish constitution, which was added in 2010.
“Anyone who has ever negotiated knows that you have to be ready to leave the table to get the desired result,” Weimers and Åkesson write, adding that “This signals that Sweden is ready to leave as a last resort and that Brussels cannot afford to lose any more net contributors.”
According to Weimers and Åkesson, Sweden is losing out on several issues, such as the minimum wage directive, which they say threatens the Swedish labour market model, or the Swedish forest industry, which they say is being used as a common carbon sink to compensate for the continent’s dirty electricity production.
“By no longer writing into the constitution that Sweden should be in the EU, we show that Sweden is flexible and stands on its own two feet,” Charlie Weimers told Swedish national broadcaster SVT last week, adding that it would show that Sweden is playing hardball.
Anti-EU party supporting pro-EU coalition
Long an opponent to the EU project, the Sweden Democrats declared a few years ago that it would no longer pursue the issue of a Swedish withdrawal from the EU. Just over a year ago, however, Åkesson announced that they would evaluate Swedish membership of the EU.
The SD leader called it a “straitjacket” and argued that Sweden had given up large parts of its right to self-determination.
In the run-up to the European elections in June, the far-right party is therefore calling for the Swedish parliament to pass a so-called ‘referendum lock’, which would require a referendum on any transfer of power from the EU to Sweden that is deemed ‘significant’ or involves ‘new or greater demands for payments’.
While the Swedish Democrats’ opposition to the EU is nothing new, these new statements could become a headache for the country’s pro-European centre-right ruling coalition of the Moderates, Christian Democrats, and Liberals.
But that same coalition depends on the official support of the Sweden Democrats, enshrined in the coalition agreement, in which the far-right party gives its backing to the coalition in exchange for implementing its immigration agenda. Clashes are, therefore, inevitable in the run-up to the European elections.
Contacted by Euractiv, the Swedish government did not respond to questions about its relations with the Sweden Democrats in light of the upcoming European elections.
(Charles Szumski | Euractiv.com)
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Source: euractiv.com
