Just before the election, SVT's satirical program "Svenska nyheter" lined up a large number of occasions when the Tidö gang had honked and driven - contrary to the experts' recommendations (11/9).
"The government is running over the National Education Agency" it says on a picture. No referral body stands behind the lowering of the age of criminal responsibility, is the message of another. And the feature shows a cavalcade of news from the mandate period, where the government has, among other things, ignored both investigators and the Legislative Council.
It is stated that the Tidö parties seem to be particularly fond of rounding up the Legislative Council, whose task is to review important legislative proposals - and the given headline "The Legislative Council also sees penal reform" speaks for itself. "The proposals are so lacking in quality that they do not have the conditions to become new law," reads the opinion. But: Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer (M) says he does not agree (TT 5/3).
It is symptomatic.
Since the Tidö government took office, there has been a clear increase in how often the advice of authorities and experts is ignored, according to political scientists. The investigation times have become shorter, the directives more controlled. And the result when alternative approaches and alarm signals from investigators, referral bodies and the Council of Laws are waved away are worse decisions and laws.
After all, the jokes only depict the reality of recent years.
It may feel good in the moment, that things go faster. But when the consequence is that people end up in trouble, and maybe accidentally expelled, it's not as much fun anymore.
The presenter Messiah Hallberg sums it all up by saying that Tidögänget treats everything as if it were questions of value, even though it is not. For example, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (M) describes the independent expert body Climate Policy Council's criticism as "opinions" and Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch (KD) reduces it to "any political debater".
Hallberg predicts that this is perhaps what is the great legacy of the Tidö project: That is, that they have changed the view of experts and authorities.
In that case, it would be an unfortunate legacy, which the next government should break with.
Because it is as reasonable as it is for politicians to make trade-offs between different interests, it is that they do not dismiss factual information as loose opinion and that experts, independent researchers and referral bodies are regarded as precisely experts. Not as ideologically driven party submissions.
Likewise, civil servants who come with well-substantiated input should be treated as fellow players who want Sweden well. Not as an opponent, which is the picture Jimmie Åkesson (SD) paints when he says that he is "one hundred percent convinced" that people in Swedish authorities oppose his policies.
Against this background, the feature in "Svenska nyheter" is accurate satire. But the laugh gets stuck in the throat.
After all, the jokes only depict the reality of recent years.
Read more:
DN's editorial board: Now we draw a line over Tidö's lousy climate policy
