Archive for André Assarsson

A number of public services and state-owned companies have been privatized in Sweden during the last ten years — telephone operator Telia and liquor retailer Vin & Sprit to name just two. How far should Sweden go when it comes to privatization?

It is important that privatization is performed only in sectors where private companies could –or should – run the services in a better and more cost-efficient way. During the recent economic crisis, the Social Democrats discussed state ownership of the private car manufacturing company SAAB; and they defend state-owned companies such as Vin & Sprit — the producer of Absolut Vodka — among others. The state should not produce liquor and run car factories in a modern Sweden where tax payers’ money not should be risked. Besides, politicians cannot manage to run car factories better than private interests and companies.

Sweden was the only country in the world besides North Korea that had a state monopoly on selling pharmacy products. The Alliance government changed that. We should be very careful about privatizing public services and state-owned companies, but the focus must be to strengthen the core of the public services. That is why the Alliance government doesn’t have any further plans for a large amount of privatization the coming four years.

Healthcare consists of roughly one-tenth of Sweden’s GDP. The current government wants to increase privatization and strengthen competition within healthcare. The Red-Green alliance is mainly opposed to this. Explain your differing views!

The Moderate Party and the Alliance government want high quality tax-financed healthcare that is the same for everyone and is guided by need. The focus should always be on the patient, and we want to make good use of employees’ commitment and skills. Thus there are no differing views between us and The Red-Green alliance in terms of financing healthcare.

However, the existing Alliance government wants to continue strengthening the freedom to choose for everyone in Sweden. Being able to choose which doctor or healthcare center to go to gives people more influence over their own situation. This also creates a sense of involvement and makes all of us more committed when it comes to welfare issues. Our goal is healthcare that gives us security, with a high level of quality and good availability.

It is also important to give healthcare employees more influence over their own work. Employees often have ideas about how to improve their situation and what improvements – both big and small – could be made. But most people find it hard to get someone higher up in the organization to listen to them. Too many good ideas have been lost within an excessively rigid bureaucracy. Short decision paths and an accessible manager should be natural features within healthcare.

Important goals for the coming four years must include to continue shorten healthcare waiting lists. Sweden is world famous for high quality healthcare and highly skilled employees – but has one of the longest waiting lists in the European Union for surgeries and doctor visits. Earlier Social Democratic governments became well known for bureaucracy, long waiting lists and less diversity – with only one way to provide health care, no matter what individual patient needs were.

Roughly one-third of Sweden’s voters have reached retirement age. Living standards differ considerably among the elderly. What needs to be done to improve life for everyone in this group? 

We need to create more jobs in order to finance ambitious reforms for elderly care and health care in Sweden – because these needs will increase as the population gets older and older. It is only with more jobs that we can afford high quality services in the public sector as the demand grows. The Moderate Party and the Alliance also want to cut taxes for the elderly because individuals’ economic margins are currently too small for too many people.

The difference between the Alliance and the Red-Green coalition in this issue is that we don’t go as far as the Red-Greens with tax cuts for the elderly, because we have different priorities with the limited budget for reforms. We realize that a tax cut for those who work and contribute to Swedish welfare strengthens the public finances – thus creating more opportunities for the elderly. We also want to increase the freedom to choose for the elderly.

The government Alliance has introduced tax reductions for services in Swedish households; for instance cleaning services and home renovations, in a move to facilitate lives of families where both parents work. The Social Democrats have opposed this. Why should we have these tax reductions — or why should we not have them?

These tax reductions have created approximately 5,500 new jobs in the important service sector and make dreams come true for thousands of people that used to be distanced from the labor market. As a workers’ party we love all jobs. This symbolic political conflict between the government Alliance and the Red-Green block summarizes what this general election is all about: moving forward with more jobs or moving back to unemployment.

The Moderate Party describes the reforms thus: “Many new jobs are now being created through tax deductions on buying certain services carried out at home, such as cleaning and child minding. This creates real jobs, instead of people buying services that they do not pay tax on. It also results in new businesses being started. The job market will become more flexible and stimulated if female entrepreneurs are given better opportunities within areas such as caring. We also want the “ROT” allowance to remain, whereby tax relief is granted for carrying out work such as home repairs and improvements. This creates more jobs in the building industry.”

Anyone opposing these tax reductions simply cannot call themselves a workers’ party, because the alternative is the same jobs but without the users paying taxes on them. Sweden already has one of the world’s highest tax rates and we’re proud of our welfare system – but we need tax reductions in order to make it more profitable to work and pay taxes for services.

How should Sweden’s active labor market policy be developed?

Sweden’s active labor market policy must continue to lower taxes on low incomes in order to make it more profitable to work. We must also lower the costs of employing people and stop the Red Green Coalition’s proposal to double the costs to employ anyone under 26 years. The financial crisis has affected the whole world. It is important to ensure that the effects of the crisis are minimized, and that we create opportunities for more jobs being available in the future. When market conditions improve, the conditions for creating new jobs must be as good as possible.

The Moderate Party and the Alliance also want the “ROT” and “RUT” allowances to remain, whereby tax relief is granted for carrying out work such as home repairs, cleaning and improvements. This creates more jobs in the important service sector and in the building industry. Matching between employers and those looking for work must also become easier by cutting administration in order to create a more efficient labor market.

I am also very proud of the “new start jobs” for those who have been unemployed for a long time or who have been really far away from the job market. By compensating the employer for employing someone who has been absent from the labor market for a longer period of time, more and more real jobs can be created for those in need. The Social Democrats and The Red Green Coalition want to increase taxes on low and ordinary incomes, make it less profitable to work, raise costs of employing and return to Sweden’s old system where people were hidden in meaningless education programs instead of earning their own money on the labor market. That is why The Alliance also has changed the measure instruments of Swedish labor market and harmonized it to EU standard where people who wants to work but instead is put into education also counts as unemployed.

These reforms must continue the four coming years. The Moderate Party’s ambition is to put Sweden in work and continue to take a great responsibility for public finances by not promising everything to everyone all the time. We need to work our way out of the crisis and together make Sweden a pioneer country.