Susanne Nyström: Nooshi Dadgostar may be about to make the biggest mistake of the year

Before the election, both the Left Party and the Sweden Democrats were clear: It is the government or the opposition that applies from now on. The days of supporting parties are over, regardless of what potential partners think.

The messages have been repeated so many times that it has basically come to be regarded as a truth that ministerial posts are the only currency in a political negotiation - and that anything but government participation means defeat. This is probably why few ask where the one-sided fixation on a handful of posts comes from. And hardly anyone admits that sitting in Rosenbad is actually not always fun or easy.

At least until now.

Recently, the former spokespersons for the Green Party, Birger Schlaug and Märta Stenevi, took the dandelion leaf from their mouths.

Schlaug states bluntly that both in his time and today there are advantages to standing outside. For example, as a small party critical of the system, you cannot push opinion for what you really think in an S-led government, and smaller parties must talk about their visions in order not to become too similar to the others. So it wouldn't be a huge disaster if this year they agree on a pure budget cooperation, goes the reasoning (TV4 7/10).

Is Nooshi Dadgostar really sure that the best options are government or opposition?

Stenevi, in turn, explains that the longer time goes by, the more compromises are made in a coalition government. Then there is the risk of losing what you wanted with the government. And she emphasizes that it is not the ministers themselves who make the decisions, but that things first pass the coordination office in the State Council Committee, where all cooperating parties are involved (Politikbyrån 7/10).

None of this means that the duo is opposed to small parties taking a seat in the next government. On the other hand, Märta Stenevi does not think that all the talk about posts lands particularly well with the voters. And not least Birger Schlaug knows that the lack of ministries is not the same as the party's mandate being free.

In his new book, he even says that after the 1998 election the Greens actively worked to avoid governing with S, because the representatives had enough self-awareness to realize that they were not ready. But that did not mean that the MP lacked substantive political influence during the 90s and 00s.

On the contrary, there was pressure to make Swedish government policy green, which was completely in line with the wishes of the environmentally conscious voters. It was probably a lot more fun than being in government tearfully changing the refugee policy in 2015, when the migration crisis was a fact.

Is Nooshi Dadgostar really sure that the only options are government or opposition?

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