“The prime minister’s office may have been infiltrated”

“The prime minister’s office may have been infiltrated,” Peter Hultqvist said as Sweden’s political parties clashed over reported Russian links involving a Sweden Democrats official.

Hultqvist, a Social Democratic lawmaker who chairs the Defence Committee, wants Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson called to an extraordinary committee meeting. He pointed to the official’s close private relationship with one of the Sweden Democrats’ senior officials in the Government Offices.

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This is a crisis in Swedish security, and it concerns the risk of infiltration in the prime minister’s office.

The relationship matters because policy documents sent to the prime minister pass through the Government Offices, including material connected to defence and security policy. Hultqvist described the allegations as a crisis for Swedish security and demanded an immediate security review of the senior official’s connection to the Sweden Democrats employee.

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Everything must be put on the table, so that we know what this is and what has occurred.

He also wants to know whether the Prime Minister’s Office knew about the relationship and whether it had been covered by security vetting. “Everything must be put on the table, so that we know what this is and what has occurred,” he said.

The Moderates rejected the demand. Defence Committee chairman Jörgen Berglund called it “clown antics by a party in panic” and said there would be no meeting. He added that Kristersson and Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer had made clear that, if the reports were accurate, the Sweden Democrats would have to act and remove the employee.

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These are clown antics by a party in panic. They have lost 13 percentage points in recent years.

The Centre Party presented a separate package of four election pledges aimed at attracting international workers and skills. It wants to abolish the salary floor of 34,450 kronor for labour immigrants and replace it with a requirement matching collective-agreement levels. The party also wants permanent residence permits to remain permanent, a dedicated startup visa for entrepreneurs from outside the European Union, and an annual investment of 1 billion kronor to recruit and retain AI researchers and entrepreneurs.

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We are removing the salary floor of 34,450 kronor and replacing it with a requirement that wages match collective agreements. It has worked before. I promise this will be one of the first decisions we take in a centrist government.