Centre leader prefers snap election to Left Party in government

Centre Party leader Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist says she would rather see a snap election than support a government that includes the Left Party, SVT reported. She wants to form a centrist government with the Social Democrats, Centre Party, Christian Democrats and Green Party after the election.

Ringqvist ruled out a government with the Left Party and said she could not work with the Sweden Democrats either. “We have a clear no to the Left Party in government,” she said in SVT’s interview programme Utfrågningen.

She has not given up hope of securing Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch’s support, despite Busch recently saying she would vote against Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson as prime minister all the way to a snap election.

“I see that she wants to take responsibility in a way that is clear and broader than what she has said before,” Ringqvist said.

Ringqvist said the political landscape looked different ahead of this election because both the Left Party and the Sweden Democrats had clearly demanded places in government. “If the Tidö Agreement collapses, things will be unsettled for a while. But we can be freed from the bloc politics that has governed us,” she said.

On policy, the Centre Party is far from several opposition parties. The Social Democrats, Green Party and Left Party want to ban profits in schools, while the Centre Party opposes such a ban.

“We think it is acceptable to have a private school if it delivers good quality. If it does not, it should not be able to distribute profits,” Ringqvist said.

She said the Centre Party would not support a ban, arguing that hundreds of thousands of pupils attend schools run as limited companies. “For us, it is important that freedom of choice remains. If you are going to have limited companies, there must be an opportunity to make a reasonable profit,” she said.