“Election victory is in danger for the blue-and-yellow team.” Ebba Busch said it in Visby, on the island of Gotland, as Almedalen political week got under way in June 2026. The leader of the Christian Democrats was talking about her own side.
The Local described the occasion as an impromptu press conference. The polls behind it were poor for the Tidö coalition, the right-wing bloc made up of the Christian Democrats, the Moderates, the Liberals and the Sweden Democrats. Voting was set for September 13th.
Colors and a confession
The phrase does double duty. Blue and yellow are the colors of the Swedish flag, and The Local read it as an appeal to patriotism that also stands for the coalition’s parties.
Busch pointed the finger inward. SVT quoted her saying: “I see reason for self-examination.” Spring polls had put the Tidö parties behind the opposition, and she traced part of that to a government that spent too long on what she called a “final accounting” of the past term. The government and the Sweden Democrats, she argued, had been looking backward.
She also unveiled a document called “Sverigedrommen”, the Sweden Dream, setting out what the Christian Democrats would demand in return for their support after the election.
Welfare over tax cuts
Her sharpest line was aimed at a partner. The Moderates have promised broad tax cuts; Busch answered: “The coming four years are not the four heavy tax-cut years.” The Local quoted her in similar terms: “The next four years will not be about heavy tax cuts.”
The Christian Democrats say they will keep the overall tax burden from rising, and that low earners should gain more than high earners. Family finances, working welfare and less bureaucracy make up the rest of her platform, along with what The Local called “values debates.”
The speech itself came at noon on Tuesday, June 23, the first party-leader address of the week, TV4 reported. Busch promised to lift the child benefit from 1,250 kronor to 2,000 kronor in the next term. “Ordinary families are winners,” she said.
She turned the same speech on the opposition, accusing it of plans to force “a certain distribution of the number of parental days”, which she labelled “a red-green quota mess.” TV4’s political commentator Ann Tiberg said the child benefit pledge was not something the Christian Democrats had won in their cooperation with the Sweden Democrats, and that it sat uneasily with Tidö policy. “She is fishing for centre voters and does so through one of the Social Democrats’ flagship demands,” Tiberg said.
Sources
- Christian Democrat leader calls for 'blue-and-yellow comeback' in Swedish election
- Ebba Busch haller tal i Almedalen 2026 (TV4, translated from Swedish)
- Busch (KD): Svenska folket efterfragar annat ledarskap (SVT, translated from Swedish)
