Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven was forced to defend his COVID-19 strategy after opposition parties mounted a scathing attack on his government amid signs its handling of the pandemic has been fatally flawed.
With more than 4,500 Swedes dead as a result of the novel coronavirus and Sweden’s chief epidemiologist admitting mistakes, Lofven was the target of a series of rebukes during a debate among party leaders broadcast on Sunday night.
“There have been obvious, fundamental failures” in Sweden’s response to COVID-19, said Ulf Kristersson, the leader of the main opposition party known as the Moderates.
Photo: AFP
Until now, Swedish lawmakers had observed a tacit political truce when discussing the nation’s COVID strategy, but that all changed last week, when state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell acknowledged that some of his decisions might have been misguided.
Since the virus hit, Tegnell has advised the government to leave most of society open, on an assumption that doing so would be more sustainable in the long run.
However, Sweden’s COVID-19 mortality rate is now among the highest in the world, and many times higher than in the other Scandinavian countries.
Like elsewhere, Sweden’s oldest citizens have been particularly hard hit.
“We didn’t get protective equipment to elderly care homes in time, although everyone knew that their residents were the most vulnerable,” Kristersson said.
Nonetheless, Lofven said there was no reason to abandon Sweden’s approach.
“The strategy is the right one,” he said during the debate on Sunday, but added that there was there was room for improvement.
“We have far too many fatalities in elderly care,” he said, adding that the government “should have tested more people.”
Pressure is mounting on Lofven as Sweden’s response to the virus puts it on a dramatically different path from countries that adopted much tougher lockdowns. Swedes suddenly find themselves facing travel restrictions in the EU due to the high infection rate in their country.
Lofven’s opponents are now seizing the moment to insist on change.
Ebba Busch, the leader of the populist Sweden Democrats party, accused Lofven of a lack of leadership and demanded that Tegnell be fired.
“The Swedish government has deliberately allowed a large spread of the disease,” Busch said. “In a difficult crisis, we will always be leaderless as long as this government is in power.”
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