Swedish Centre Party leader Muharrem Demirok to step down
"I am aware that my leadership has been criticised," Demirok said, adding that "it will be someone else's task to lead this party into the next election."
Demirok has been in hot water recently, with the leader heavily criticised from within the party for his leadership, his low opinion ratings and the ongoing debate as to which side of the political divide the party should align with in the run-up to next year's election. He reportedly called for the party to formally support Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson, which would align it with the Left Party and Green Party, although party leadership could not come to an agreement.
"I'm not prepared to let a discussion on my party leadership stand in the way for Sweden or a positive election result in 2026," Demirok said.
The party had an opinion rating of just 3.8 percent in SVT/Verian's most recent voter survey in February, 0.8 percentage points lower than the previous month. That's well below the 6.7 percent result from the 2022 election and just below the parliamentary threshold of 4 percent.
The only party which scored lower was the Liberals, with a rating of just 2.5 percent. This was the lowest rating for the two liberal parties since the voter survey began over 50 years ago.
The Centre Party has collaborated in the past with the Christian Democrats, Liberals and Moderates as part of the Alliance government, but has historically refused to work with the Sweden Democrats, which has barred the party from working with the right-wing bloc currently running the country.
The party also refuses to work with the Left Party, which is one of the four parties in the left-wing bloc, meaning that it has found it difficult to find a place in the new political climate.
"I'm not scared of Social Democrats. I'm not scared of Green Party members, Moderates or Liberals or Christian Democrats," Demirok said in the press conference on Monday. "The opposite in fact, because I know that they are not the ones threatening to destroy the Sweden we love. We share a common ground."
Demirok took over as party leader in February 2023 from Annie Lööf, who had been leader of the party for over 20 years.
Sweden's two political blocs have a roughly even split of votes, with just 3.8 percent between them in February's opinion poll. The current ruling block has 176 seats ‒ the government (Moderates, Liberals and Christian Democrats), with the support of the Sweden Democrats and one former Sweden Democrat who is now independent. The opposition ‒ the Social Democrats, Left Party, Green Party and Centre Party, plus one former Social Democrat independent ‒ has 173 seats.
If the new leader of the Centre Party were to ally with the right-wing bloc and the Sweden Democrats, it would represent a shift to the right for Swedish politics and effectively make it impossible for the Social Democrats to form a government, unless there were major shifts in support for the other left-wing parties.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Local Sweden
15 hours ago
- Local Sweden
Swedish government proposes loosening up mortgage rules
The Swedish government and the Sweden Democrats have proposed reducing the country's amortisation requirement for mortgages as well as lowering the necessary size of a deposit from 15 percent of the property's value to 10 percent. Advertisement A softening of mortgage requirements will make it easier for young people to enter the housing market, the Swedish government said as it presented the proposal. The government also hopes that the proposed measures will reduce the number of people taking out expensive consumer loans to finance a property purchase. READ ALSO: How a new proposal could make it easier to get on the Swedish housing ladder "It is fundamentally healthy to own your own property, but unhealthy to have a consumer loan," financial market minister Niklas Wykman said at a press conference. "This will help people to cut their consumer loans and borrow more using their property as security." Wykman said that the government believes this could lead to higher property prices in the short term, with a greater supply of homes in the long term. The parties also proposed changing the amortisation requirement, abolishing the rule that households with mortgages more than 4.5 times their income have to amortise an extra percent on their mortgages, arguing that this will lower the threshold for accessing the housing market while also improving household finances. Sweden's base amortisation rule, which requires mortgage holders to amortise one percent of their mortgage per year if their mortgage is between 50 and 70 percent of the value of the property, or two percent for loans over 70 percent, will remain the same. The Riksbank central bank and the Financial Supervisory Authority have been critical of the planned changes to the rules, with their objections including concerns that they will lead to increased household debt, thereby affecting Sweden's economic stability. Advertisement Wykman said the goal of the new proposal is to 'protect a healthy amortisation culture without putting up unnecessary barriers'. 'You need different types of rules to make sure that debt doesn't take off in a way which would be unsustainable for households and for the economy,' the minister said. 'Our starting point is that you should pay back your debts – a loan is a loan.' The new rules have a proposed implementation date of April 1st, 2026.
Local Sweden
20 hours ago
- Local Sweden
Why has Sweden proposed abolishing permanent residency for Swiss citizens?
The Swedish government's plan to tighten asylum rules to the strictest level allowable under EU law was supposed to be the crowning glory of its 'migration paradigm shift'. But the inquiry's first proposal could claim an unexpected victim: everyone from Switzerland. Advertisement What does the proposal say? The proposal, which is mainly focused on abolishing permanent residency for asylum seekers, also includes a section on phasing out permanent residency for long-term residents of the EU, a status known as varaktigt bosatt. Currently, non-EU citizens who have been living in Sweden with a residency permit for five years, with no breaks, can apply for status as varaktigt bosatt, or long-term residence, which grants them an EU residence permit with at least five years' validity, and which is automatically renewed when it expires. This is a residence permit which is granted under EU law rather than Swedish law. It allows holders to move more freely to work in another EU country. For primarily practical reasons, people in this group have previously been granted permanent residency under Swedish law at the same time as long-term residency under EU law. Under the new proposal however, people who are registered as varaktigt bosatta would no longer be granted permanent residency and would instead be granted temporary five-year residence permits. This effectively means that the only way for people in this group to gain the right to live in Sweden permanently is through obtaining Swedish citizenship. The other groups affected by the proposal are refugees, people in alternative need of protection, quota refugees, people who have been granted residence permits because of 'exceptionally distressing circumstances' (synnerligen ömmande omständigheter) or an 'impediment to enforcement' (verkställighetshinder). These groups would in some cases be able to apply for residence permits on other grounds, if they qualify. Advertisement Why does this affect Swiss citizens in particular? Switzerland is not an EU member state nor is it a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), but it does have a number of bilateral agreements with the EU, including agreements on freedom of movement, and it's a member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), along with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, which are also members of the EEA. This means that Swiss citizens, unlike the other three EFTA countries, do not qualify for right of residence under EU rules (uppehållsrätt), but they also can't get residence permits under non-EU rules (uppehållstillstånd), as they have a special status due to agreements with the EU. Swiss citizens are unable to receive, for example, a work permit or study permit for non-EU citizens instead of their special Swiss permit. Currently, Swiss citizens, along with their family members, apply for their own special residence permits with the Migration Agency once they move to Sweden. After five years, they can apply for status as varaktigt bosatta, which also grants permanent residency. Swiss citizens, due to their special status, are also ineligible for other types of Swedish residence permit which provides a path to permanent residency, such as the EU Blue Card or ICT (Intra-Corporate Transfer) permit issued to non-EU citizens moving to a different country but staying within the same company. This means, as the Migration Agency has confirmed to The Local, that the only way for Swiss citizens to get permanent residency in Sweden is by registering as varaktig bosatta. By proposing to remove the possibility for people in this group to get permanent residency, Sweden would essentially close the only path Swiss citizens have to gain the right to live in Sweden permanently without getting citizenship. Sweden's commitments to the EU Advertisement University union SULF raised the question of whether this breaks the agreements between the EU and Switzerland in an official response to the government's proposal to abolish permanent residency for varaktig bosatta. 'If this is the case, then the proposals put forward by the inquiry represent a serious deterioration in the situation for these citizens which can hardly have been the goal of the directive,' the union's response reads. 'SULF can see no signs that the inquiry has provided its reasoning for this, or whether it has investigated whether a change is compatible with the commitments towards Switzerland that Sweden has as a member of the EU.' Swiss citizens would therefore be the only so-called third country citizens who would be barred from permanent residency solely as a result of their nationality, SULF writes. Advertisement So why has Sweden put forward this proposal? It is not clear whether Sweden meant to include Swiss nationals in it's crackdown on asylum seekers or whether citizens of the Alpine nation have been accidentally caught up in the tightening of the laws. The Local has requested an explanation from the government. One of the key policies of the so-called "migration paradigm shift" in the Tidö Agreement between the government and the far-right Sweden Democrats is to tighten Swedish asylum laws to the lowest level permitted under EU law. In October 2023 it appointed judge Josephine Boswell to lead an inquiry into phasing out permanent residency for refugees and asylum seekers. The first part of the inquiry, described above, is currently making its way through the legislative process, with relevant organisations and public authorities given until June 18th to comment on its proposals. The next stage of the inquiry, which is due to be presented on October 2nd, 2025, will look more closely at the situations in which permanent residency permits which have already been granted could be changed or revoked.
Local Sweden
2 days ago
- Local Sweden
More than half a million living in Sweden without a personnummer
At least half a million people are living in Sweden without a personnummer, according to the Tax Agency (Skatteverket). And 110,000 or more aren't registered at all. Advertisement At the turn of the year, 10,587,700 people were listed in Sweden's population register, an increase of around 36,000 people on the year before, according to the Tax Agency. It found 485,028 people with active coordination numbers – a number given to newly arrived immigrants who do not yet qualify for a personnummer, the ten-digit identity code that unlocks a wide range of Swedish services, from banks to gym cards. Around 110,000-185,000 people are living and working in Sweden without either a personnummer or coordination number, according to the Tax Agency's estimate. There can be perfectly legitimate reasons why someone doesn't have a personnummer (for example you don't qualify for one unless you can show that you intend to live in Sweden for at least a year), but the Tax Agency also found a few discrepancies. Around 116,000 people are living in Sweden at an address different from the one they're registered as living at, despite the law demanding that the two match. READ ALSO: At least 79,000 people are in the population register without living in Sweden, and around 24,000 living in Sweden are eligible for a personnummer, but don't have one. Advertisement The figures were presented on the government's request, after it tasked the Tax Agency with presenting an annual report shedding light on population data in Sweden. "We now have the best picture of the population in modern times. It is really important, both to keep tabs on who is in Sweden and to stop cheating, errors and crime," Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson said in a statement after receiving the report.
