The Swedish Social Democrat (S) party did not think it through when it decided to take credit for the defeat of a catastrophic climate initiative in Brussels that could have cost homeowners thousands of euros. Claiming credit for the outcome does not work when you’re on record for voting in support of the legislation.
The proposal in question was aiming to reduce energy use throughout Europe, including a mandatory renovation requirement to make homes more energy efficient. While the proposal did pass in the European Parliament earlier this year, the Council put an end to it, fortunately. The forced renovation was dropped as the final bill emerged from the trilogue negotiations at the end of last week, replaced by potential EU assistance to those who want to renovate but have no means themselves.
“We did it!” the social democrats celebrated after the legislation was finalized on Friday. “Now Sweden’s small homeowners can exhale, no one will be forced to renovate their home. Our fight paid off. … An important success for Sweden and the Swedish people.”
However, the party was quickly over as conservatives began pointing out that their socialist colleagues were standing on the other side of the issue not so long ago.
“You damned liars. You voted for [the] forced renovations,” MEP Charlie Weimers (Sweden Democrats) said on X. I know because I sat opposite you when you did it.” The “draconian demands” for forced renovations would have impacted 1.8 million properties in Sweden, Weimers added. “[We] saw that this would have huge consequences and voted no. [Social Democrats] voted yes. Own it.”
The conservative MEP even posted the roll call sheet, taken directly from the European Parliament’s website, that clearly shows socialist MEP Heléne Fritzon and her colleagues voting in favor of the proposal. In fact, all leftist and center-right MEPs supported it, and only the two conservative groups—ECR and ID—voted against it.
Clearly, the social democrats are gearing up for next year’s European elections, although this new type of campaign might be a bit counterproductive. But it’s no surprise that they tried to take credit from the national-conservative Sweden Democrats (SD), as they now consider the party their main adversary in the next elections.
For the past 40 years, Swedish politics has been dominated by the rivalry of the Social Democrats and the center-right Moderates (M). It seems not anymore, as the SD overtook the ruling Moderates by 5 points in the most recent polls.
“The Moderates have become SD’s [the Sweden Democrats’] support party,” said the Social Democrats’ Secretary Tobias Baudin recently, adding that the Moderates are “simply irrelevant.”
