Sara Skyttedal received a quarter of a million for election campaign

SVT has reviewed all information reported by the parties on their revenue in 2018. The individual politician who has received the most from private grants is Sara Skyttedal, now EU parliamentarian. She withdrew SEK 250,000 for her election campaign in the Swedish election last fall.

- That was good news. It is basically a matter of being a political profile that stands out, says Sara Skyttedal.

The largest sum, SEK 120,000, was received by Sara Skyttedal from the financier Lage Jonason in Djursholm. He does not want to answer SVT's questions in an interview, but states in sms that he has donated money to the party on previous occasions, and that he thinks she is a good politician.

Do you think he is happy with how you spent the money?

- I hope so, says Sara Skyttedal.

How do you see from a democratic point of view that people with a lot of money can push for a policy that benefits them?

- For me, it has been clear that I am seeking support for my policy. It is clear that, like other political representatives, I have the opportunity to choose which issues we push. But if you know anything about my political background, you know that I hardly give in to pressure from outside, says Sara Skyttedal.

Sara Skyttedal's second largest contributor in 2018 was a person so controversial to the Christian Democrats that he was excluded from the party this summer. Joachim Gahm, also a resident of Djursholm, and until the exclusion of municipal politicians in Danderyd, has, according to the party, expressed unacceptable repeatedly and damaged the party's reputation.

In one of Joachim Gahm's posts on Facebook it says "my faith does not allow abortions, all abortions are murder".

- I don't think it's a way to express yourself on social media. It sends signals that I think many people feel very uncomfortable with, including myself. Most Catholics think that life begins at the moment of conception, but there are other ways of expressing it than talking about murder, says Sara Skyttedal.

Joachim Gahm tells SVT that he is behind Swedish abortion legislation, and that it is not he himself who thinks that all abortions are murder, but that he refers to his confessor in the post. But the issue of abortion obviously contributed to his being excluded from the party. It, along with the questions of Islamism and immigration, is included in his own explanations and comments following the party board's decision.

But despite the party board not wanting Joachim Gahm left in the party, and despite being critical of Facebook's post about abortion, Sara Skyttedal thinks it feels okay to have received money from Joachim Gahm for last year's election campaign.

- It feels great to campaign with money from both Joachim Gahm and Lage Jonason, and from all the other hundreds of people who have supported my campaign because of the policy I stand for, says Sara Skyttedal.

Sweden has repeatedly received criticism from the Council of Europe for the secrecy of private contributions to politics, and now the requirements for accounting have been tightened on several occasions.

"In their evaluations, the Council of Europe concluded that there was an imminent risk of corruption if the rules were not changed," says Tommy Möller, professor of political science.