Analysis: Environment and climate are losing big among voters

Novus has conducted interviews with 1,000 Swedish voters about which political issues they consider to be most important.

Compared to the previous survey, which was presented in June, there have been only minor changes in the ranking between the various issues.

Law and order have climbed a place, while the school slipped down a place. It is also clear that elderly care and the environment and climate have become less important to voters.

An interesting note is that 22 out of 26 political issues are losing importance since the last survey. What this is because is difficult to draw any certain conclusions about. After all, it may be a temporary decline. Therefore, it will be interesting if the next survey confirms the development.

Thus, several of the most important issues for voters lose significance for voters. However, one issue that holds the stand is law and order. Given the summer shootings and blast attacks, it may not be that strange. Some would have expected a clear upturn here, but that has not happened. On the other hand, the significance of the question does not diminish, which is the case with most other questions.

Health care loses significantly in importance, as do the elderly care and the environment and climate. Despite this, healthcare is still the issue that voters think is most important.

Unlike last summer when much of the news reporting was about drought and forest fires, the summer that has now passed has been about completely different things in the media. It can at least partially explain the climate issue's race as an important issue for voters.

Another explanation may be that the EU electoral movement has now completely ceased. In an EU electoral movement, the climate issue is always large, while it usually plays less role in national politics. Even after the 2014 European elections, a decline in the importance of climate issues for voters was noted.

Of course, this is a challenge for the Environment Party. The party has high confidence in the environmental and climate issue and in order for the party to grow, it is likely that the climate issue is the focus of the debate. That is why the language tubes are constantly trying to move the debate towards this, but in a situation where blasts and shootings have become everyday food, it is not very easy.

Another change is that the equality issue now completely falls away from the top ten list of the most important issues. Instead, taxes go back into this list. The tax issue has been discussed a lot lately, which may be an explanation. For example, the government's proposal to eliminate the so-called protection tax has received a great deal of media attention.

Immigration and integration remain in second place, just before law and order. It is above all the voters of the Moderate and Swedish Democrats who think these issues are the most important, while the Social Democrats' voters instead think that health care and school are the most important. Other parties are too small to be able to detect such variations.

One conclusion that can be drawn from Novus' investigation is that it confirms a right-wing shift in Swedish politics. Sure, the health care issue is at the top and where the Social Democrats enjoy the greatest confidence, but both law and order and immigration and integration, which come shortly thereafter, are issues where the Moderates and the Swedish Democrats have the greatest confidence among voters.