Last week, the government announced that Swedish aid to Kiev since the start of the war has amounted to at least SEK 70 billion (€6.3 billion) – as much as the total cost of Sweden’s entire justice system in 2023.
However, the Center Party believes that this is far from enough – and is now demanding that Sweden triples its funding.
“Sweden should take greater leadership and immediately triple its financial support to Ukraine to SEK 75 billion per year. Given the current security situation, the need for increased support to Ukraine is greater than ever”, the party writes on Facebook, claiming that it “never lets Ukraine down”.
The SEK 75 billion (€6.7 billion) corresponds to one percent of Sweden’s GDP and they demand that Swedish aid be increased “here and now”.
“This is one of the biggest committee initiatives ever put forward. The Center Party wants the increase to happen now, without delay”, the party writes in a comment to Swedish TV4.
Wants to “defeat” the Kremlin
– This is the morally right thing to do, but it is also in Sweden’s direct security interest, says the party’s economic policy spokesman Martin Ådahl.
Although all Swedish parliamentary parties have clearly backed Ukraine in the ongoing war, the left-liberal C party has made some of the most criticized statements – and been accused of trying to escalate the conflict and drag Sweden into a war with Russia.
Earlier in January, for example, The Nordic Times reported how the party’s MEP, Emma Wiesner, declared that “we” must “defeat the regime in the Kremlin” and that the flow of money to the country must therefore be cut off.