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When the 73 points of the January agreement were known, the threat to the new government came from the left: if Stefan Löfven continues with the changes in the labor law and the rental market, Sjöstedt would do everything possible to overthrow the government, including if an unholy alliance with M, KD and SD was required. .
You went to the polls because you were a counter-vote against the Swedish Democrats, how did that land in your party?
– We never negotiate with SD and M and KD cannot negotiate with them when they speak to us. They are only allowed to relate to what we bring and that reduces their influence. For us, it is an important principle that we will always adhere to. But we have always been open to talking with the bourgeois parties. For our voters and members, I believe that the political content is absolutely crucial. As long as we get out of negotiations with more people who work in elderly care and with the end of privatizations, that’s good.
“The government depends as much on us as on the Center Party,” says Jonas Sjöstedt.
Photo: Barzan Dello
This summer came discussed the LAS investigation. Now the ball is in the court of the parties, who are in intense final negotiations. Jonas Sjöstedt hopes they will come to a solution, otherwise the threat to the government remains.
– The government depends as much on us as on the Center Party. Each minority government must relate to the base of government. I hope Stefan Löfven will go back and say that he will not carry out the investigation. Otherwise, we are ready to overthrow the government.
To provoke one The so-called motion of no confidence against the prime minister requires 35 members of parliament to stand behind such a proposal, the Left Party has 27. After that, 175 votes of no confidence are required in the chamber. Together, M, KD, SD and V add 182 seats compared to 167 for the January parties.
Sjöstedt has a problem here. The moderates are behind a change in labor law and will not try to stop such proposals.
A passerby takes a photo with Jonas Sjöstedt.
Photo: Barzan Dello
How much will your threat really be worth?
– This is something Ulf Kristersson doesn’t seem to see. We will not wait until there is an invoice. I hope the parties agree on something better than the investigation proposal. But if the parties do not reach an agreement and if the government insists on going ahead with this which is so incredibly bad for the safety of the workers, then we will not wait. We will act in a few weeks.
But what do you think of the next step? Are you ready to release a moderate prime minister?
– Under no circumstance. The first thing that is most likely is that the government will say that we cannot implement this and the second is that it will be a by-election. We’d rather make an additional decision than watch when job security breaks.
But the middle step, how do you get the required number of members?
– Ulf Kristersson cannot at one moment say that I am in the opposition and want by-elections and at the other moment say that he will waste his only chance to get it.
When Jonas Sjöstedt took office, his goal was to raise the Left Party from 4 percent to 10-15 percent. That did not happen. In 2018, it was 8 percent. When the Left Leader lists the mistakes and successes during his time as president, he will go back to the previous term. Then the Left Party had to sit at the negotiating table and shape the government budget.
– We did a lot. Today we are a much stronger party with about twice the membership and greater voter support. One of the most important changes in the party has been the climate issue. We wrote a great ecological-economic program and we have developed many policies in this area. But it is clear that I wish we had prohibited social speculation.
Photo: Barzan Dello
During Sjöstedt’s time as President, there has been an internal debate and the inability of the party leadership to prioritize the issue of honor has been criticized. He does not completely agree with the critics.
– I have been very clear on those issues. I mentioned it in every election I held in 2018. We are in favor of investments in outreach activities and various equipment adjustments. I think some of those criticisms were unfair, but also that we could have been even clearer even earlier.
In the congress at the end of October, the new leader of the left will be elected, most of the indications that it will be the deputy of the party Nooshi Dadgostar. Only then will Jonas Sjöstedt be able to board the plane to Vietnam, where his wife has received a post as an ambassador to Hanoi. When the family moved there, he promised to travel by train as often as possible, a journey of about nine days.
– I had planned to go there by train this November, but will only come to Finland. The borders are not open and the trains are not running. But my goal is to travel both ways by train when I get home in the summer.
Soon, time with family, whom he has not met in two and a half months, and a whole new life await him.
– It will be good to have more time to spend with my family, reading and writing. It will probably be both political and perhaps also a detective story.
