This year, the Swedish aid framework is approximately SEK 53 billion. If the previous one percent target had continued to be the benchmark, the framework would have been approximately SEK 75 billion – SEK 22 billion more – according to Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (M) in an interview with Ekot on Saturday.
Generous
“We are still incredibly generous with Swedish tax money to other countries,” said the Prime Minister.
He believes that there is more to be gained from aid – billions that would be better used in Swedish politics than as foreign aid.
“My starting point is that we can be at some kind of European average,” said Kristersson, estimating that it corresponds to somewhere around 0.5 percent.
A rough estimate would mean around SEK 15 billion less than the current development assistance framework.
Wanted to halve
The Sweden Democrats already wanted to go further in the initial negotiations on the budget with the Tidö government.
“Last time we proposed a halving, but we didn’t quite get that far,” says Oscar Sjöstedt, SD’s economic policy spokesperson, adding that there is more to do.
Sjöstedt says it is gratifying that the Prime Minister and the Moderates seem to be moving in the Sweden Democrats’ direction on aid.
Ulf Kristersson believes that it was high time to abandon a goal that made aid exempt from priorities, unlike all other areas. Now it is being weighed against other expenses and reforms. In the election campaign, the Moderates are focusing on pitting Swedish health care against aid.
The two governing parties, the Liberals and the Christian Democrats, are sticking to the one percent target, at least in principle.
The goal also applies to the Center Party, the Left Party, the Green Party and the Social Democrats.
Will take time
While several of the supporters of the goal want to return to it within one term, Magdalena Andersson, leader of the Social Democrats, believes that it is unrealistic.
“It will take a long time,” she says.
The party also does not seem to prioritize the issue – in its budget motion for 2026, the Social Democrats only allocated one billion more than the government to the aid framework.
