Tonläget i svensk politik har under senare år hårdnat. Att hålla god ordning i riksdagen är en av talmannen Andreas Norléns absolut viktigaste arbetsuppgifter.
Han minns särskilt tillfället då Linda Westerlund Snecker (V) och Adam Marttinen (SD) råkade i luven på varandra. Såväl förolämpningar som personangrepp hördes tydligt i plenisalen.
– Jag kommer ihåg en situation för ett år sedan då en sverigedemokrat yttrade sig gentemot en vänsterpartist på ett sätt som innebar ett direkt personangrepp.
"My task is to maintain order"
The exchange the Speaker remembers is the angry exchange between Linda Westerlund Snecker (V) and Adam Marttinen (SD) which took place during a debate in the Riksdag in 2019. Linda Westerlund Snecker accused the Sweden Democrats of hating homosexuals and having "very much in common with jihadists" - which led Adam Marttinen to describe Linda Westerlund Snecker as "the embarrassment in Sweden's Riksdag personified".
That was when Andreas Norlén, who is also clear that the Speaker should stay out of the political debates, felt compelled to put his foot down.
- It is my task to maintain order, however, we must be restrictive in breaking in.
On the one hand, we have extensive freedom of expression, and on the other hand, the debaters themselves must take their responsibility.
But you must not go to personal attacks, then we must intervene.
"Said one or two inappropriate words"
But it is not only during the debates that our members of parliament can lose their composure.
- Sometimes there is a continued exchange of opinions even after the line breaks and then one or two inappropriate words have been said, says Andreas Norlén.
What is the ugliest word you have ever heard someone say in the Riksdag?
- It would be strange to me as a timid and well-behaved President to repeat it in that case.