The Sweden Democrats have always had a negative attitude towards Swedish EU membership. Now party leader Jimmie Åkesson wants Sweden to "for real" evaluate membership in the union.
The party is often critical of several of the issues that the EU wants to push through – including the EU's migration pact – and in the debate article, Åkesson likens the EU to a straitjacket where German, French and Polish politicians decide which car Swedes can buy, how expensive the fuel should be, and what types of trees Swedes are allowed to cut down on their land.
"Sweden has simply given away significant parts of our right to decide over ourselves," Åkesson writes.
"Of course we can't have that"
According to Åkesson, EU legislation risks having so much influence over Swedish decision-making that Swedish general elections will soon have no significance.
"Other countries' politicians and bureaucrats, whom we cannot elect or dismiss, today have greater influence over Swedish legislation than I and my elected colleagues in the Swedish Parliament," Åkesson writes.
"Of course we can't have that."
"It's about what the EU can do for us"
Åkesson further writes that Swedish policymakers must better guard Swedish interests, and that we need exceptions from EU directives in order for the policy to be more in line with the will of the people.
"Other member states are using the Union for their own benefit and we need to do the same. It is time to charge for all the hundreds of billions we have shipped to the EU. It is no longer about what we can do for Europe, but rather what Europe can do for us".
SVT is looking for Jimmie Åkesson.