Analysis: It is increasingly difficult for the prime minister to defend himself against the criticism

Country after country in Europe now opens its communities and borders on the imminent summer. However, travelers from Sweden are ported by several countries. The reason is stated to be that the spread of infection here is too extensive.

Nevertheless, the prime minister does not want to admit that the Swedish infection prevention strategy has failed. It is far too early to draw any certain conclusions, was Stefan Löfven's message in SVT's Agenda.

But the more the spread of infection in Sweden stands out from other comparable countries and the higher the death toll rate is relative to other countries, the harder it will be for the prime minister to defend himself against the criticism.

And critics have certainly not been missing, neither in Sweden nor internationally. At the beginning of the corona pandemic, Sweden was seen in other countries as the slightly different but still exciting experiment in the fight against the corona virus.

But as the death tolls soared here, curiosity has instead been replaced by criticism - and now closed boundaries.

According to statistics from the German Infection Protection Agency presented by SVT's Agenda on Sunday, Sweden is the country in Europe that has had the most new corona cases in the last seven days.

Sweden is also in fifth place among the countries that had the most deaths in relation to the population during the corona crisis. In addition, the death toll here is far greater than in our Nordic neighboring countries.

So far, neither Stefan Löfven nor anyone else in the government has been able to explain why this has become so. Nor did the Prime Minister succeed in the Sunday interview in Agenda. This may be because Swedes have different travel patterns, Stefan Löfven said, but could not explain in what way it would have led to more sick and dead in Sweden.

It may also be because, he said, countries report their statistics in different ways, but neither did we get any clear answer on how this can explain the dark statistics in Sweden.

The Prime Minister refused to allow the Swedish strategy to fail based on the statistics. Instead, he chose to highlight the positive signals that, after all, exist, that is, fewer fewer are being cared for in covid hospitals and that fewer are dying. Only when the crisis is over can one draw definite conclusions about what worked well and badly in the Swedish corona strategy, Stefan Löfven said.

Of course, it is far too early to draw certain conclusions about how the government, authorities, municipalities and regions have acted during the corona crisis. It is possible only afterwards.

At the same time, the more the Swedish death toll stands out compared to comparable countries, the harder it will be for Stefan Löfven and the government to claim that the Swedish strategy has worked well.

At the moment a special commission is being prepared to examine how various community agencies have coped with the crisis in Sweden. Such a commission can be valuable in several ways. Of course, one is to chart Sweden's actions since the crisis broke out, and then it is not just about the government but also about the authorities' efforts and how the work has been done at regional and municipal level.

Another task for this commission will also be to prepare the country for the next crisis. The Commission will be able to present its conclusions early next year. But no matter what, the political debate and the accountability of the government are now learning to take momentum seriously. And it seems to be a tough task for Stefan Löfven to parry the political attacks that are waiting.