An old truth is that politics is an industry of trust.
Those who consume all or part of their trust have a harder time reaching their message, making voters believe that they are telling the truth or that they mean what they say.
Trust is thus both the beginning and the end of politics.
Living as you are taught is another central issue for a politician who wants to be taken seriously.
Recent revelations about the Minister of Justice Morgan Johansson and the Prime Minister Stefan Löfven have once again brought to the fore these crucial aspects of political life.
They are not alone.
Dominic Cummings was one of the first political powers to be caught in a blizzard during the corona pandemic.
He was one of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's most important advisers and chose to take the car on a longer drive to his parents' home, in the middle of Britain's shutdown this spring.
Of course, the criticism was harsh and demands were made for his resignation.
The government's turn to be criticized
In Sweden, KD leader Ebba Busch has been criticized after visiting parties during the corona pandemic.
SD leader Jimmie Åkesson, who snorted in the Riksdag, has also been criticized.
So now it's the government's turn.
Minister of Justice Morgan Johansson has queued during the midday sale to enter a store in Lund.
The purpose was to buy gifts.
Prime Minister Stefan Löfven has visited the Mall in Stockholm, despite calls on the Swedish people to refrain from visiting shopping centers and malls.
He is said to have picked up a thing in a watch store.
The fact that they themselves represent and personify the government and thus the central crisis management makes the damage considerably greater.
The extent to which Morgan Johansson's and Stefan Löfven's actions were actually risky for the spread of infection is unclear.
It's actually also quite uninteresting.
The crucial thing is that they themselves have very strongly urged the Swedish people to avoid this very behavior.
But then they themselves seem to ignore their own urgings.
Loses weight and credibility
Do not visit shopping centers and malls, the Prime Minister's message was just a couple of days before he himself visited the Mall in Stockholm.
Find no excuses or excuses.
Obey the advice, was the message.
Whether it was crowded or not when the Prime Minister chose to go to the Mall, I do not know, but that is not the point either.
The point is that a politician should live as he teaches so as not to lose credibility.
Not least in a crisis where the continued spread of infection is said to depend on how we behave.
The message to cancel the midday sale was just as clear.
Of course, it was all the more piquant then that the Minister of Justice chose to stand in line to go to the midday sale.
Stefan Löfven condemned his minister, but what he thinks of his own actions is still unclear.
What has now happened means that both Morgan Johansson, Stefan Löfven and the government as a whole are losing weight and credibility as they continue to urge the public to follow advice and recommendations to reduce the spread of infection.