"The school's biggest champion". This is how the Liberals' party leader Johan Pehrson was introduced at Tuesday's second party leadership speech during Almedalen Week 2022. When Pehrson left Sweden and the school world for a while, he highlighted, among other things, the security policy situation in the world and Swedish democracy assistance.
Unlike several previous party leadership speeches during Almedalen Week, Johan Pehrson's (L) speech covered a number of foreign policy issues, including Swedish aid, the climate crisis and Sweden's responsibility for advocating human rights in the world.
- Let us all agree that Sweden, and for that matter Finland, must continue to be a strongly present voice in the fight for freedom and democracy throughout the world, Johan Pehrson said in the opening minutes of his Almedal speech.
Thereafter, the party leadership speech was characterized by a liberal vision for the outside world, where the importance of the individual's freedom is emphasized no matter where in the world one is. The party leader spoke sharply against China's curtailment of civil rights, as well as Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the United States' curtailment of abortion rights. Security in Sweden's immediate area must be ensured through the EU and primarily NATO, Johan Pehrson said.
Wants to cooperate with the Moderates
Democracy is the key word for the liberals' vision of the future, which must be achieved with special democracy assistance to other countries. In the party leadership speech, Johan Pehrson also expressed a clear ambition to be part of a bourgeois government base with the Moderates in the event of a potential election victory this autumn. The moderates want reduce the development assistance budget to almost 0,7 per cent of GNI in the next few years - a reduction corresponding to SEK 13 billion from today's one percent target. IN their party program The Liberals express that they want to see generous aid, made up of at least 1% of GNI, but how the Liberals and the Moderates should solve the differences in their view of Swedish aid was not developed in the speech.
Johan Pehrson also mentioned the climate briefly in his party leadership speech.
- Technological innovations and political courage are needed to cope with the climate crisis, he said, but without adding any concrete examples of what it means - which is also lacking in the Liberals' aid exercise from last year.
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