After a monologue about the political polarization that characterizes society, Svenska Nyheter's host Kristoffer Appelquist opens the lid on his laptop, and calls the editor-in-chief of the Social Democrat Dala-Demokraten, Göran Greider - who responds with a song of praise.
As the song progresses, he is joined by a long line of politicians and opinion leaders, from Dick Erixon on the Sweden Democrats' online magazine Samtiden, Chang Frick, editor-in-chief of the site Nyheter Idag, to Annika Strandhäll (S) and Anders Lindberg, lead writer on the Social Democratic Aftonbladet.
"I wrote the song last Monday"
Michael Lindgren is known from Grotesco, and has previously been a producer for Svenska Nyheter.
He is the author of the anti-polarization song "I hate you and everything you believe in".
- I worked on this for a week.
Wrote the song last Monday, it has been a fucking ringing.
He says that he feels that many Swedes lock themselves into opinion clusters, and do not want to listen to anyone other than those who confirm their already held opinions.
- Based on that, we invited as many profiled political voices as we could, from all corners of the Swedish public.
Can we have a three-minute ceasefire?
Can we all get to sing a cozy song together?
That was my ambition: To create a feelgood atmosphere where political enemies joke with themselves for a few minutes.
There is something hopeful about it, he tells SVT Nyheter.
Not everyone said yes ...
But getting so many widely differing voices together was a huge challenge, and not everyone said yes.
Do you want to tell us who said no?
- I do not know if I want to do it ... Many were asked, but chose not to participate, some for personal reasons, others for political reasons.
For example, Gudrun Schyman did not want to join.
Joakim Lamotte and Ivar Arpi also declined.
Do you think that some people simply do not dare to sing with people from another political camp?
- Absolutely, I think so.
Some find it difficult to involve their political opponents.
So, how do you top this next season?
- You never know.
Reality always peaks, so new things are certainly happening in Sweden that give us something new to joke about.
See the entire section of Swedish News here.