Sjöstedt warns Andersson against government deal with Christian Democrats

Jonas Sjöstedt, a senior Left Party politician, is seriously concerned that Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson could seek to form a government with the Christian Democrats after the 2026 election, SVT reported.

“I am afraid of that. I fear it. There is a great deal of flirting, not only with the Centre Party but also with the Christian Democrats,” Sjöstedt said after SVT Agenda’s election debate on climate policy.

Andersson has not said which parties she would prefer to govern with, but has ruled out cooperation with the Sweden Democrats. Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch has said that a government partnership with the Social Democrats is not currently relevant. She has, however, opened the door to agreements with them on important issues across the political blocs and has not ruled out forming a government with the party in an “exceptional situation”.

Sjöstedt said he feared the Social Democrats would regard the Christian Democrats as a realistic governing partner.

“I am seriously concerned that they see it as a main alternative,” he said, urging Andersson to begin building an alliance with the current opposition parties instead.

“She should speak to the other opposition parties and start putting the team together. We have hoped for that for a long time,” Sjöstedt said.

He said cooperation with the Left Party would be necessary if Andersson wanted to fulfil campaign promises such as ending profit-seeking in schools and scrapping the qualifying-day deduction.

Green Party co-leader Amanda Lind also said a partnership with the Christian Democrats would not be good for the Social Democrats. She noted that Andersson wanted to invest in welfare, cut emissions and increase equality, adding that it seemed strange to pursue those goals with a party that had strongly represented the current right-wing government.

Sjöstedt said climate policy would suffer if the Left Party and the Green Party were not part of the government. Although he did not want to allocate ministerial posts in advance, he said he had considered serving as a minister himself.

“When I have worked on climate issues in the EU, I have often thought: what if we had had a red-green government and I had been climate minister?” he said.