Susanne Nyström: Did Ulf Kristersson just throw Simona Mohamsson under the bus?

Ulf Kristersson once campaigned alongside the Liberals and called the party essential to forming a new centre-right government. Now, as Sweden’s 2026 election approaches, he says the other Tidö parties can do well without the coalition’s smallest member.

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absolutely

The shift comes after Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Åkesson urged voters not to cast tactical ballots for the Liberals. Åkesson wrote on X that the party had become a brake on the coalition and set a threshold: if the Liberals had not reached 3.5 percent in opinion polls 10 days before the election, supporters should vote for another Tidö party instead.

Simona Mohamsson, the Liberal leader, has appealed for tactical votes and argued that her party is necessary if a right-wing government is to be formed. Kristersson has not backed that appeal. In a party leader interview with Dagens Nyheter on September 1, he answered “absolutely” when asked whether the other three Tidö parties could win without the Liberals.

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as political opponents in ideological terms

Nyström presents this as a sharp change from four years ago. During the 2022 campaign, Kristersson appeared with then-Liberal leader Johan Pehrson in Örebro and said the Liberals’ survival was important to the possibility of forming a new centre-right government.

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every party must win voters on its own merits

The columnist links Kristersson’s current position to Mohamsson’s decision this spring to abandon all red lines toward the Sweden Democrats and present the two parties as a joint government alternative. Instead, Mohamsson now faces Åkesson calling the Liberals ideological political opponents and Kristersson saying that each party must win voters on its own merits. Nyström concludes that Mohamsson continues to describe the parties as one “team” despite the rejection from her coalition partners.

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team