Confidence is at the bottom - after a year as party leader

Novus 'survey of voters' confidence in the party leaders is a nightmare reading for both Nyamko Sabuni and the liberals who hope that the party will survive in Parliament after the next election.

Only 7 percent of voters today state that they have confidence in Nyamko Sabuni. In June 2019, when Sabuni was elected new party leader for the Liberals, 21 percent of voters stated that they had confidence in the new L leader.

The decline since then is remarkable and also means that Sabuni is the party leader who enjoys the lowest confidence among Swedish voters.

Nyamko Sabuni was elected party leader by promising straight and clear messages and a more bourgeois policy. After a year, it can be stated that the only thing she seems to have accomplished is to create increased uncertainty about the party. This is both about the political content but also about the government issue.

Opinion figures for the Liberals have dropped and the party is now firmly entrenched under the parliamentary blockade. And Sabuni's personal confidence is at the bottom.

She has not been able to meet the expectations of increased clarity, either in terms of politics or government.

At the same time, the January agreement acts as a political jersey for her. She was a strong opponent to this agreement from the start, but was forced to inherit it as a party leader and has promised to pursue it. But her enthusiasm does not seem overwhelming. At the same time, the January agreement blocks her from taking her own political initiatives. The worst possible combination, that is.

Neither enlightenment is in sight for neither the Liberals nor Sabuni. However, this does not mean that the situation is hopeless. We have seen before how party leaders such as Annie Lööf and Ebba Busch were calculated after a few tough years and bad opinions, but how they later rose, came back and managed to reverse the situation.

However, the problem for Nyamko Sabuni is that cooperation with the Social Democrats and the Environment Party is rejected by most bourgeois voters and is probably the most important explanation for the Liberals' decline. As long as Sabuni persists in this cooperation, the opportunities are thus limited to attract back the voters who have moved.

The Corona crisis has also affected a small party like the Liberals. During the spring, the spotlight has been directed primarily at the Social Democrats. The other parties in the January collaboration have emerged most as support parties.

Novus confidence barometer for June does not, of course, offer any major surprises. Most of the changes also appear as a mirror image of the voter barometer, which was presented on Thursday.

Confidence in Prime Minister Stefan Löfven drops slightly compared to the last survey, but is still high over confidence in February, just before the corona crisis struck. The confidence in Löfven has thus fared well, despite recent criticism being sharpened against the government for its actions during the corona crisis and despite the question marks becoming more and more about the Swedish strategy.

Moderate leader Ulf Kristersson has at the same time increased his confidence throughout the corona crisis. Kristersson's rise is likely to be an expression of the voters' perception of his and the party's actions during the corona crisis as a vote of confidence.

While the trend is upward for Kristersson, it is on the way down for Left Party leader Jonas Sjöstedt. The Left Party has had difficulty finding a given role during the corona crisis, which has created problems for the Party. Despite the downturn, Sjöstedt, along with Kristersson, is the party leader whom almost the majority of voters consider to have confidence.

For other party leaders, the changes are quite small, which confirms the image that the opinion situation is now stabilizing, following a spring with sharp fluctuations.