Analysis: "The crisis deeper for political leadership"

Political leadership in Sweden is in deep crisis. Prime Minister Stefan Löfven comes first in fifth place in Novus' trust survey. Only 23 percent of voters say they have confidence in him. Compare this to, for example, former Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who had the confidence of 45 percent of voters a few months before he lost government power. No party leader today, at least Stefan Löfven, is close to these confidence figures.

The last few years have also been devastating for confidence in the Prime Minister. Ahead of the 2014 election, 44 percent of voters said they had confidence in Stefan Löfven. Since then, confidence in him has almost halved. Probably there are several explanations, of which the minority board with constant compromises, the immigration issue and crime developments in recent years are probably the most important.

During the same period that confidence was halved for Löfven, it has doubled for SD leader Jimmie Åkesson. In Novus confidence barometer, Åkesson now tops with KD leader Ebba Busch Thor. While Åkesson is boosting his confidence, Busch backs Thor, which means both are now at 31 percent.

The fact that Jimmie Åkesson enjoys such great confidence among the electorate shows that the other parties' attacks on the Sweden Democrats have for a long time failed capital and had everything but the intended effect.

But it's not just Jimmie Åkesson's shared first place in this confidence poll that stands out. The fact that Ebba Busch Thor, who leads a party with just over six percent in the opinion polls, places himself at the top is also remarkable. What is common to Åkesson and Busch Thor is that they attack the government mainly from the right and that they have been the loudest critics of the Löfven government for several years.

The moderate leader Ulf Kristersson is likely to exhale because, after all, he has a higher level of confidence among the voters than the prime minister, but this can not be particularly comforting. Kristersson backs almost as much as the prime minister and ends up at 25 percent. He is thus sailed by both Åkesson and Busch Thor, which should create real nervousness within the Moderates. The party's position as a dominant political force on the right half of Swedish politics may be about to falter.

Novus confidence barometer was carried out in conjunction with the tours of the Riksdag around the threat of confidence in the employment services. Judging from the result, both Löfven and Kristersson lost out on this political battle.

It is also interesting that V leader Jonas Sjöstedt now passes both Stefan Löfven and Ulf Kristersson in the confidence league.

The fact that Sjöstedt and Åkesson, who can be said to represent traditional extremes in Swedish politics, have greater confidence among voters than both Löfven and Kristersson clearly illustrates a growing distrust of the established power parties' ability to solve today's social problems.