Jimmie Åkesson complains about the power of the authorities but does nothing about it

Case officers at government agencies dictate the terms of what policies are to be pursued in Sweden. Jimmie Åkesson (SD) grumbles, but fundamentally changes nothing about the power of the agencies. He mostly engages in signal politics.

Last Tuesday, March 10th, DN interviewed in the article ”I am one hundred percent sure – the authorities are working against us” Jimmie Åkesson on the SD's direction of travel, what the SD wants to achieve, and how he views Swedish politics and the country's future.

Jimmie Åkesson is absolutely convinced that authorities are working against him and the Sweden Democrats in general. He believes that various authorities are obstructing legislative proposals and other measures required to save Sweden. What he says is correct, that authorities are very much working against both the Sweden Democrats and proposals put forward by the rest of the government.

Examples of good but opposed proposals are the ”body search zone laws” (searches in security zones) and the duty to inform act.

The former concerns the police being able to search people in particularly vulnerable areas without reasonable suspicion. It was nicknamed the ”snitch law” by established media and the red-green bloc.

The second concerns individuals working within authorities having to inform relevant authorities if they become aware of a person residing in the country illegally, with the aim of counteracting both gang-related crime and social parasitism, as well as terrorist acts on Swedish soil.

”The ”visitation zone law" was heavily revised. It can only be used in direct connection to a very serious crime, and then only for two weeks at a time, and must be extended by a prosecutor, not the police chief himself.

According to Akademikerförbundet SSR, the Information Obligation Act should only apply to six authorities: the Swedish Social Insurance Agency, the Prison and Probation Service, the Enforcement Authority, the Swedish Pensions Agency, and the Swedish Tax Agency. Initially, it also included healthcare, schools, and social care, but this has been dropped. It is in these authorities that undocumented individuals are discovered to the greatest extent.

Jimmy Åkesson pretends that he is doing enough to tackle the problems, but it is merely tokenism. The fact is that Åkesson is doing next to nothing to resolve the problems.

The problem is that authorities oppose all proposals they deem to be bad. Thus, individuals within authorities dictate the terms of what policies should be pursued in Sweden. This is called political activism. Police officer Peter Springare and social worker Maria Rennerstam provide good examples in their books.

The power of the authorities

The problem is that regulatory activism – ranging from smaller regulatory bodies to the higher courts – exerts a significant influence on power. Another term for this regulatory activism is the ”deep state”, and it refers to the way in which officials within regulatory bodies determine the country’s political direction.

We in Ambition Sverige therefore believe that we must abolish the principle of the separation of powers in order to resolve these problems. This does not mean that we want a government to have unlimited powers, but the problem with the system we have is that it was designed for a different Sweden.

Very few people in the 1980s and 1990s could have imagined that we would face crime that threatens the very foundations of our system, but that is the reality today. Today, we have criminal clans and networks that threaten our local authorities, county councils and even the state through infiltration.

There are plenty of such examples today, and special measures are required in a force majeure situation such as the one we currently find ourselves in. We cannot wait for officials within the Swedish authorities to see reason. It is our country that is at stake, and whether there will even be a Sweden worth living in for our children and grandchildren.

A Sweden without the principle of the separation of powers could, instead, have a functioning Constitutional Committee. We currently have a Constitutional Committee, but it operates without reprisals and merely involves a hearing. We saw this in the NUON affair.

What we need is a Constitutional Committee that can impose sanctions on politicians who have acted in ways that have been directly harmful to Sweden. This, combined with the reintroduction of professional and civil service accountability – which Ambition Sverige wishes to introduce – means that we can make radical changes relatively quickly if we come to power in Sweden.

If we do not take these steps, power in Sweden will be reserved solely for the Social Democrats, who, through their loyal officials and civil servants, ensure that Sweden pursues social democratic policies regardless of who is in government.

To break this vicious circle, we must therefore break the stranglehold of the balance of power about Sweden, because a system of government by the authorities is profoundly undemocratic.

Ambition Sverige wants to place more power in the hands of the people through democracy. Going to the polls in every election whilst knowing that social democracy is the sole ruling force in Sweden is the antithesis of democracy. Public officials should serve the will of the people, not rule over citizens.

Text: Ambition Sverige | Picture: Jimmie Åkesson and police officers carrying out a search | Original photos: Tommy Winterskiöld Vestlie (CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia) and Johan Nilsson, reworked using Grok AI, ®AmbitionSverige

Related Police can now visit – without concrete suspicion of a crime, 25 April 2024, Sveriges Radio