Diskussionen runt att ansluta den svenska kronan till euron på nytt blossat upp. Finansminister Svantesson framförde nyligen en intention om att utreda en anslutning till euron, men euron är en statslös valuta och därför inte hållbar på längre sikt. Egen krona är guld värd vilket syns i den styrka som kronan har uppvisat det senaste året. Därför ska Sverige inte ansluta kronan till euron.

En statslös valuta

Eftersom EU inte är en riktig nationsstat så innebär det att euron i praktiken är en statslös valuta. De 20 medlemmarna i EMS (European Monetary System) har visserligen ett gemensamt ansvar för valutans upprätthållande genom den europeiska centralbankens (ECB) förvaltning.

Detta fungerar så länge den gemensamma räntesättningen fungerar bra för alla medlemsländerna. Men eurokrisen 2010–2012 – då Grekland hade enorma svårigheter att hantera sin statsskuld och fick räddas genom stödpaket – visar att euron har inbyggda destabiliserande faktorer.

Statsskulderna konsolideras inte

En av svagheterna är att medlemsländernas statliga skulder inte konsolideras. Varje medlemsland lånar på egen hand upp kapital, genom att emittera egna statsobligationer, för att hantera sin ekonomiska politik. Således har euro-länderna samma korta styrränta men helt olika räntenivåer på långa löptider eftersom varje medlemslands kreditvärdighet bedöms individuellt.

Ingen gemensam kapitalmarknad

Som följd av detta har varje land sin egen kapitalmarknad, där landets egna statsobligationer handlas och den långfristiga räntenivån sätts. Det krävs en gemensam kapitalmarknad där medlemsländerna kan emittera långa statslån till samma villkor och samma ränta för att säkerställa det gemensamma ansvaret för eurons långsiktiga hållbarhet.

Olika banksystem

Ej heller finns det en gemensam bankunion så att betalnings- och kapitalöverföringsvillkoren blir standardiserade i EU. Trots vissa insatser för harmonisering så gäller idag olika villkor i respektive lands banksystem. Därmed är inte heller banksystemet i EU särskilt effektivt och hållbart.

Inget enhetligt skatteväsende

Slutligen finns det inget enhetligt skatteväsende. Ska EU kunna fungera som en stat så måste uppbärandet av skatteintäkter vara standardiserat genom ett eget skatteverk. Idag finansieras EU huvudsakligen genom medlemsländernas goda vilja att betala sina årliga EU-avgifter.

Egen krona är guld värd

Ett valutasystem som inte är solitt i grunden kommer inte att överleva finanskriser. Till skillnad från andra valutor så har euron varken kapitalmarknad, gemensamt banksystem eller enhetligt skatteverk att luta sig mot. Därför är både euron och EU bräckliga i grunden. Kronan var 2025 års starkaste valuta och Sverige styr sin framtid bättre med en fristående krona. Därför vill Ambition Sverige bibehålla kronan självständig, inte ansluta sig till euron utan istället lämna EU.

Bo Hansson, talesperson för partiet Ambition Sverige | Artikeln har tidigare publicerats i Bulletin | Foton: eget verk (Hansson) och Jonn Leffmann, CC BY 3.0

The Ambition Sverige party has the ambition to reduce the employer's contribution for small businesses. This would be of great benefit to an ignored social group that makes great contributions to Sweden, write Micael Hamberg and Bo Hansson.

Swedish small businesses - from the self-employed up to 10-20 employees - are too often left in the political backwater. Almost no-one, apart from the Federation of Small Businesses, highlights their circumstances and problems - the smallest businesses are simply taken for granted.

The Ambition Sverige party wants to change this by specifically prioritising improvements to small business conditions in its economic policy. After all, it is small businesses that hire the most new workers of all business categories, which should be particularly important in these days of both high unemployment and the rapid rise of AI.

Sweden already has high unemployment, which entails high public costs in the form of welfare benefits. So far, there are no effective measures that clearly reduce unemployment.

In addition, many companies are starting to plan for the introduction of AI as a cost efficiency measure in their operations. In the near future, many administrative positions in both the private and public sectors will be replaced by AI - positions that will require new employment.

The Ambition Sverige party believes that one of the most important measures to counteract increased unemployment is to make it easier for small businesses to hire new employees. What prevents companies today is the high employer's contribution. Reduce the employer's contribution by removing the general payroll tax, which is a pure punitive tax on companies for having employees. If the general payroll tax is removed, the employer's contribution will be reduced by 11.62 percentage points to 19.80 per cent instead of the current 31.42 per cent.

The abolition of the general payroll tax gives companies extra room to hire new employees. It also provides the opportunity to raise the wages of those already employed. Both circumstances have a positive tax effect for society, in the form of increased income tax and increased consumption.

As a first step, the general payroll tax can for the first five (5) employees of the companies is removed. This makes it easier for small businesses in particular to hire more employees. This limits the immediate tax loss and the dynamic effects, in the form of more employees and their increased consumption, begin to have a positive effect before the next step in the phase-out is implemented.

Many small businesses are barely making a profit. With the removal of the general payroll tax for the first five employees, a company with a turnover of SEK 15 million and an average monthly salary of SEK 37,000 would have its annual payroll costs reduced by SEK 257,964, thereby increasing the company's profit margin by +1.7 per cent - which would be both much needed and necessary.

It is curious that no other parties seems to care about small businesses and their future. It is particularly odd that the centre-right government is instead considering raising the general payroll tax from 11.62% to 12.62% from 2026, as Taxpayers recently noted. This would be a step in the wrong direction, when Sweden needs to create more jobs.

Swedish economic growth and welfare are far too important to be neglected. Swedish economic policy must focus on the right political measures to reduce unemployment and thus secure welfare. Ambition Sverige agrees with Småföretagarna that the removal of the general payroll tax from employer contributions is a priority measure. It would be both necessary and gratifying if any other political party wanted to do the same - for the sake of Sweden!

Micael Hamberg, economic spokesperson

Bo Hansson, pension policy spokesperson

Small businesses are Sweden's future, but the sick pay system makes it risky to hire. This is written by Micael Hamberg and Bo Hansson, spokespersons for Ambition Sverige.

When an employee falls ill, the individual is responsible for one day's sick leave. The company, on the other hand, is responsible for up to 14 days of sick pay. It's a system that works in practice for larger employers - but can be devastating for the small businesses that form the backbone of the Swedish economy.

For a small firm with two, three or four employees, extended sick leave can quickly become a major blow. The cost of sick pay is combined with lost production, replacement staff and administration. Sick leave can simply be the difference between profit and loss - or in the worst case, between survival and closure.

A system that penalises the smallest

The current sick pay system is built for the reality of large employers, where risks are spread across hundreds of employees. But for the small business owner - the hairdresser, the carpenter or the café owner - sick leave imposes an unreasonable financial burden. As a result, many are reluctant to hire, especially their first employee.

This is unfortunate. Sweden needs more small businesses that grow, not more rules that hold back the willingness to hire.

Ambition Sverige's proposal

Ambition Sverige proposes that companies with fewer than five employees should only be responsible for one day's sick pay - the same period as the individual. Thereafter, the state should take over responsibility for sick pay.

For growing companies, the liability can increase gradually with the number of employees. This creates a fair and proportionate system, where risks are distributed according to the actual ability of companies to bear them.

Security and growth can go hand in hand

Our reform would:

  • Reduce the thresholds for small businesses to dare to hire.
  • Create greater security for both employers and employees.
  • Strengthen Swedish competitiveness and contribute to more jobs throughout the country.

If Sweden is serious about protecting small businesses, policy must also demonstrate this in practice. Making small businesses pay the same sick pay as large companies is neither fair nor sustainable.

It is time for a change. A modern sick pay system should encourage ambition - not penalise it.

Text: Micael Hamberg and Bo Hansson, spokespersons for Ambition Sverige

Despite good returns, pensions are only growing marginally. The pension system has been turned into a political tool instead of a security for those who have worked all their lives," says Bo Hansson, deputy party leader of Ambition Sverige.

The Swedish income pension system should provide pensioners with better pensions. Instead, large parts of the pension capital have been used to fill holes in the treasury and to invest in risky, green climate projects. We want to make the income pension more self-owned and raise the basic deduction substantially - to two price base amounts - so that pensioners can get the reward for their work that they should be entitled to.

Pension provision The income pension is the employee's savings for their own pension. Each month, a salary-based sum is set aside and the capital is then managed primarily by the AP funds' portfolio managers - but then politics comes in.

The income pension capital of the AP funds grows with the return on the funds' securities investments, but the actual return is not passed on to pensioners - because the amounts paid out in pensions are determined by a given formula based on an income index and not on the return itself.

During the period 2001-2024, employees' inkomstpension capital grew on average by about 6.3% per year. What was paid out to pensioners increased by an average of 3.1% per year. The difference between the two? It remained in the buffer funds and could be used for policy initiatives.

Ambition Sverige wants to make the national income pension more owner-occupied and increase the basic deduction substantially - then Swedish pensioners will get their rightful reward for their work.

The premium pension, measured on the basis of AP7's Såfa fund, grew by an average of 7.8 per cent per year during the same period. The difference lies in a larger proportion of equities, but also the absence of politically driven investments in utopian green projects such as Northvolt - which cost pensioners nearly SEK 6 billion. The premium pension provides higher earnings, which in turn increases pensions.

Ambition Sverige wild that the self-owned premium pension share in the income pension system should increase to at least half of the 18.5 per cent set aside for pensions each month. Today, 2.5 per cent of the 18.5 per cent is allocated to the premium pension. With half in premium pension, both the pension capital would grow more and the risk of large losses in politically controlled green risk investments would decrease.

As the change to an increased premium pension would probably take a few years to implement, we propose a faster income improvement for pensioners. Looking around at other countries, it appears that Germany, for example, has a significantly higher basic deduction (Grundfreibetrag EUR 12,096 for single people, equivalent to around SEK 132,000) for pensions. Sweden should be closer to this and therefore it is reasonable to increase the basic deduction for pensions.

Raising the basic deduction on pension income to two price base amounts - instead of the current increased SEK 65,300 for low incomes - would increase pension income by almost SEK 1,500 per month after tax. Such an upward adjustment makes a real difference and could be implemented quickly, if the political will exists.

Thus, Ambition Sverige wants to make the national income pension more self-owned and increase the basic deduction substantially - then Swedish pensioners will get their rightful reward for their work.

Bo Hansson, Pensions Policy Spokesperson & Deputy Party Leader Ambition Sverige | Montage of photos from Depositphotos.com and T. Sassersson

When VAT on food was introduced in 1969, it was to solve an acute crisis in government finances. It was
was intended as a ”temporary” measure in a crisis situation. But like so many others
“temporary” taxes, it stayed. Year after year, government after government, it has been expanded,
defended and normalised.

Today, we pay 12% VAT on the food we buy. That may sound modest. But in
In practice, this means that over SEK 40 billion disappears each year directly from
household coffers, straight into the state's black hole.

For perspective: the state administration thus the bureaucratic apparatus with all
authorities are made up of 367 separate agencies for a country of just 10 million inhabitants.
Bureaucracy costs around SEK 145 billion every year.
By comparison, the Paris region is home to more people than the whole of Sweden, but it does not need
400 authorities to make society work. Yet we still insist on keeping a
oversized machinery that grows every year.

We could have cut down this gigantic machine, cleared away the excess and used
money to something that actually makes a difference: removing VAT on food so people don't have to
go hungry in one of the richest countries in the world. But in Sweden, the prestige of politics and
the self-interest of the state apparatus over the basic needs of citizens.
It doesn't matter that parents can't afford to feed their children or that pensioners
skipping meals. The main thing is that the system gets its due.
Taxes above all. Bureaucracy and the system before people. And when you question
you are told that “there is no room in the budget”.

We have turned the logic on its head: citizens must starve to feed the system

It is as if we have collectively forgotten why VAT was introduced in the first place.

A double tax on people's everyday lives

Think about it for a moment: when you buy food for already taxed money often after paying
some of the highest marginal tax rates in the world, you are forced to pay additional tax/VAT. It is a
double taxation that hits hardest those with the least margins.

For single parents, pensioners and low-income earners, VAT on food is not an abstract
percentage. It is the difference between eating cooked food every day or having to buy it
cheapest rubbish that makes people sick. We are heading towards a class society where some can afford
with nutritious food and health, while others are trapped in poverty and ill health. This gap is growing
for each year.

“Tax expenditure” - a strange word for a tax that should never have existed

When you read the government's budget, it is called a “tax expenditure” that VAT on food is at 12 %
instead of 25 %. In practice, this means that the government counts the missing surcharge as a
lost income as if it were a cost.
Put simply:

  • If VAT is increased from 12 % to 25 %, the government will receive around 30 billion extra.
  • When you don't get it, it “costs” the state 30 billion.
  • This way of counting means that cheaper food is seen as an economic “loss”
    while politicians never talk about the bloated budgets of public authorities in the same way.

It does not matter that people are starving or that children go to school hungry. What matters, in
government's logic, is that “net lending” in central government is maintained and that this is done on
at the expense of public health, the state does not care.

Food or rent? Government hunger never ends

For years, households have been squeezed from all sides. Interest rates, electricity prices, rents and food costs
is skyrocketing. More companies are going bankrupt than in decades. Unemployment is on the rise.
Single parents are forced to take out SMS loans to afford the food basket. Older people are skipping out
meals because the pension is not enough.

But in the midst of this, government tax revenues on food are increasing. Because as food becomes more expensive, the
VAT revenue in SEK terms. Did you know that the big food chains in Sweden often have
profit margins of 2-3 per cent, while the government charges 12 per cent on everything? In 2022 alone, the
11.4 billion more than normal, more than the entire grocery sector
total profit.

When your family is forced to choose between rent and food, the government makes more money. It is money that
do not go to you. They disappear into a system that has made itself the number one priority.
When politicians say “we can't afford to remove VAT on food”, what they really mean is: “we don't have
afford to cut back on ourselves.”

There are alternatives:

We can afford it. We just have our priorities wrong. We can do things differently:

  • We can remove VAT on basic foodstuffs permanently.
  • We can introduce targeted health taxes on sugar, sweets and snacks, which would both strengthen
    public health and finance the transition.
  • We can support co-operative shops, REKO rings and strengthen local communities that want to
    challenge the big oligopolies.
  • We can slim down the oversized state apparatus that grows bigger year after year
    while ordinary people are finding it increasingly difficult.

Because the question is not whether we can afford it. The question is whether we want to continue in a system where cheaper food is seen
as an “expense” but the state's own bureaucracy is never called a waste.

It's time to take back the power over food

We are at a crossroads. Either we accept a society where more children grow up in poverty,
more elderly people skip meals and more citizens have to go to social services to ask for help with
food or we say: enough already.
Removing VAT on food reduces the need for benefits. People get back their dignity
and freedom and a sense of empowerment.
Are we to continue fuelling a state apparatus that makes food a class issue, while the state apparatus
swells and ordinary people are pushed deeper into economic insecurity?
Can we afford to accept that the food most basic to our survival is used as a
tools to fill the state's coffers?
Food is not just a commodity. It is a human right. A society that cannot
offer its residents healthy food at reasonable prices has lost its anchorage in what welfare
should mean.
It is time to speak out. It is time to put people first and free people from
the greed of politics.

https://www.tn.se/naringsliv/42013/tn-reder-ut-sa-mycket-tjanar-staten-pa-maten-siffran-finansministern-talar-tyst-om/

 

Elena Malmefeldt (A), spokesperson for the Swedish culture and Health and Wellbeing

Naturopathic Doctor (ND) (Svenska Naturläkarförbundet)