Analysis: "New Moderates are now definitely in the grave"

The moderates' party meeting in Västerås, which ended on Sunday, gives a clear signal to the voters that the party's ideological focus will be further shifted in the conservative direction. The right-hand gear that started already during Anna Kinberg Batra's time as party leader is thus completed.

When summarizing the meeting, it can be noted that the party has supported a tougher criminal policy and a stronger migration and integration policy. These include, among other things, greater opportunities to expel foreigners who have committed crimes in Sweden and that a ban on hazing should be investigated.

Fredrik Reinfeldt's large, and sometimes so successful projects, the New Moderates are thus finally buried.

Now it is traditional moderate politics. In addition to a restrictive immigration policy, harsher penalties include major tax cuts and criticism of public service.

With this course change, the Moderates are trying to adapt to a changed political reality. This is both about issues of crime and migration becoming increasingly important for voters, but also that the Swedish Democrats have become an increasingly difficult competitor on the right-hand side in Swedish politics.

Therefore, the party leadership also signals a more confrontational opposition role. The last remnants of the December agreement should be washed away from the voters' consciousness. The party leadership's strategy is to fight in Parliament to run the government on three clearly defined issues; stricter punishment for murder, scrapped penalty for young people and a law on access bans in shops, swimming pools and libraries.

Here are ready-made investigative proposals, which according to the Moderates open for the parliament to round the government in the legislative process. However, such a situation is extremely rare in Sweden and is therefore likely to be debated.

However, if this more combative strategy can be crowned with success in Parliament, it is ultimately determined by how the Center Party and the Liberals stand. This is what the mathematics of parliament looks like.

With a more confrontational stance in parliamentary work, the Moderates will also learn to take a more restrictive stance in the future when it comes to cross-border settlements. Thus, even in this way, the moderate direction can have an impact on parliamentary work and on the government.

At the same time, the Moderate General Meeting also provides important information about the relationship with the Swedish Democrats. This has long been a mined ground for moderate party leaders.

Both Anna Kinberg Batra and Ulf Kristersson have at times turned as worms when the issue was raised by journalists or political opponents. An important explanation is that the party has been divided on the issue.

Now, however, the relationship with the Swedish Democrats seems to have lost much of its political explosiveness within the Moderates. This is clear when talking to representatives at the Moderate Meeting. Although there are still divided opinions on this, it is obvious that most moderates accepted that the party must somehow cooperate with SD to get back to power.

It is also the straight message that Ulf Kristersson now gives on the issue. To try to create a majority for the party's politics, he does not hesitate that the Moderates should now also cooperate with the Sweden Democrats.

Thus, it seems that this issue, which has so long complicated the existence of the Moderates, can now definitely be removed from the agenda. This, of course, also means a distancing from the earlier era, the New Moderates. Fredrik Reinfeldt has long been the politician who went the longest to brand everything in contact with SD.

Thus, the direction is also clear for the remainder of the term of office.

The moderates intend to go for elections on their own policy, without formal ties to other parties. At the same time, the opening to SD means that some form of collaboration or collaboration may become possible after the election.

An adjustment to the parliamentary situation, of course, but also a choice of path that can further draw on the political map in Sweden, while at the same time creating the conditions for what SD leader Jimmie Åkesson most preferably wants a new conservative bloc to be established.