Liberals

The Liberals trace their history to the liberal Riksdag groups of the 1800s. According to the party programme, the Liberal Coalition Party (Liberala samlingspartiet) got a national organisation in 1902 in the form of the Frisinnade landsföreningen, with strong ties to the suffrage movement. After a split in 1923 there were two liberal parties until 1934, when they merged under the name Folkpartiet. The party itself highlights Bertil Ohlin, who according to the programme formulated the foundations of modern social liberalism in the 1930s. The name was extended to Folkpartiet liberalerna in 1990 and changed to Liberalerna in 2015 (the party programme).

Folkpartiet sat in centre-right governments from 1976 to 1982, and Ola Ullsten led a Folkpartiet minority government in 1978 and 1979. Under Jan Björklund's leadership the party was part of Fredrik Reinfeldt's Alliance government from 2006 to 2014. After the 2022 election the Liberals joined Ulf Kristersson's government together with M and KD, with support from SD under the Tidö Agreement. Party leaders since then have been Nyamko Sabuni (2019 to 2022), Johan Persson (2022 to 2025) and Simona Mohamsson (Den Store Danske).

Voter support has varied over time. The party's highest result in the Statistics Sweden (SCB) series is 24.4 percent in 1952. In modern times the party reached 14.2 percent in 1985 and 13.4 percent in 2002, while the 2022 result of 4.6 percent was the lowest. In the 2026 election the party increased to 5.34 percent.

The party programme states that the Liberals' mission is to "fight for every person's freedom to shape their own life". The party describes its social liberal mission as evening out the conditions that lie outside the individual's control, and writes that liberal justice is about "equal conditions, not equal outcomes" (the party programme). The programme combines a market economy and property rights with publicly financed schools, health care and social insurance.

The 2026 election manifesto is called "För din frihet" (For your freedom) and is organised as a journey through life, from maternity care and preschool to elderly care. Schools get the most space. The party says it believes in "a society that backs you up, but does not stand in the way" (election manifesto).

Other recurring issues are the EU and defence, where the party wants to introduce the euro and remove the veto in the EU's foreign policy, as well as the fight against honour-based oppression and for LGBTQI people's rights. The party also states that it wants to continue governing with M, KD and SD.

The Liberals want to lower the state income tax on higher incomes, with the aim of halving it, and continue with broad tax cuts for people who work or have worked. The party wants up to half a million kronor to be savable tax-free in an investment savings account, and proposes a child deduction of 10,000 kronor per year and child on earned income. Other proposals are broader RUT deductions, especially for older people, and a Swedish referendum on the euro on election day 2030. Financing according to the election manifesto: 20,000 fewer positions in bureaucratic support functions in the public sector by 2030. The party programme says that tax cuts should not be financed by lowering ambitions in the welfare system.

The party wants to make it cheaper to hire, including by making the halved employer contribution for young people permanent and lowering the contribution in the first year for those who hire a newly graduated university graduate. The Liberals want a fully state-run unemployment insurance instead of today's unemployment funds (a-kassor), and more vocational and apprenticeship training as well as a larger higher vocational education sector. Attendance in SFI (Swedish for immigrants) should be a requirement for benefits. For labour immigration the party wants to lower the salary requirement for work permits and introduce a start-up visa and a points system that, according to the party, is inspired by Canada. People who move from income support to work should keep more of the benefit for a transition period.

The Liberals say they want to "eradicate gang crime" and that shootings and bombings should be gone within five years. The party wants to raise the penalties for recruiting children, expel more gang criminals without Swedish citizenship and have the state fund more visible police officers across the country. A financial task force with staff from the Police Authority, the Tax Agency, the Economic Crime Authority and the Enforcement Authority is to target the criminal economy. At EU level the party wants a common European police force and an EU-wide criminal record register. According to the proposal, an electronic ankle monitor should be the main rule for restraining orders, and conditional release for those convicted of sexual offences should be tied to continued treatment, including chemical castration. In preschool and school the party wants to strengthen preventive work.

The party wants to pursue a "strict and humane asylum policy" where those who are rejected must return and those who behave well have good opportunities to stay. The Liberals highlight language tests and citizenship tests and want more people who have lived in Sweden for a long time to become citizens. The party wants to ban religious preschools and schools, with the exception of schools with a profile towards national minorities, and says no to gender-segregated school and swimming lessons. It also wants to stop funding of religious communities from undemocratic regimes. For children who need to strengthen their Swedish, the party proposes mandatory language preschool from age three and language screening at child health centres (BVC).

The Liberals want more nuclear power and for the state to give guarantees for nuclear reactors and other long-term investments. At the same time the party wants to expand solar and wind power and simplify the permit process for offshore wind power, while keeping the influence of the local population. According to the election manifesto, the EU's net zero emissions target for 2050 should stand and emissions trading should remain the "engine" of climate policy. For households the party proposes lower electricity tax for charging posts, abolished taxation of public transport cards as a benefit and a broader deduction for green technology. The party also wants to protect more nature, stop trawling near the coasts and allow general hunting of cormorants.

The party wants to train 4,500 more general practitioners and strengthen the law so that everyone can register with a regular doctor. Health centres should have longer opening hours, and according to the party the state should steer health care more clearly to shorten the queues. The Liberals want every woman giving birth to have her own midwife and for those giving birth to be able to choose a caesarean section. The party describes higher ambitions in elderly care as "the next big welfare reform" and wants people who receive a lot of home care to be able to choose their team. The state should take over responsibility for personal assistance. In addiction care the party wants to expand needle exchange and try injection rooms, while drug use remains criminalised.

The Liberals want the state to take over responsibility for schools from the municipalities, with a national school voucher as the first step. The party proposes a cap of twenty students per class starting in the early primary years, half-size classes in Swedish and mathematics, and that the teacher's authority over teaching be written into the Education Act. Tablets and personal student computers should be removed in preschool and the early primary years, and all students should have the right to textbooks. The party says it defends the right to choose a school but wants to phase out the profit motive in schools. Other proposals are support classes for students with disruptive behaviour, trials of discipline schools in vulnerable areas and a return to a subject-based upper secondary school. The goal is for teachers to have the "best conditions in the world" by 2035.

This section sets out what government agencies and state councils have said about the party's proposals or about the same type of proposal, in the agency's own words or a close summary, both when they support and when they oppose. Parties that have been in government often receive more consultation responses, because their proposals have become inquiries and government bills, so a difference in quantity is not a judgement.

On tax-free saving in investment savings accounts as a type of proposal, both the National Institute of Economic Research (KI) and the Swedish National Financial Management Authority (ESV) advised against the government's 2024 proposal for a tax-free basic level. KI judged the proposal inefficient because the tax cut would largely go to people who already save, and ESV that a large share of the cut would go to a relatively small group with large savings. On the RUT deduction for household services, the Swedish National Audit Office noted in 2020 that it has led to more work and higher incomes for some groups, but that the government's assessment that the reform pays for itself has weak empirical support. We have not found any statement by a public authority on the proposal to halve the state income tax.

IFAU evaluated the 2007 cut in employer contributions for young people and found positive but relatively small effects, 6,000 to 10,000 new jobs in the short term, with lost revenue of SEK 1.0 to 1.6 million per job created. In a 2025 consultation response IFAU wrote that research shows such cuts produce “expensive jobs” relative to the lost tax revenue, and that temporary cuts probably have smaller effects than permanent ones. On the salary requirement for work permits, the Swedish Migration Agency in 2024 had no objection to basing the requirement on the median wage but took no position on the amount. We have not found any statement by a public agency on a fully state-run unemployment insurance.

On the type of proposal for higher penalties for recruiting children: on 1 September 2026 Brå advised against the memorandum on an aggravated offence of involving minors in crime and wanted the provision to be evaluated first, while the Swedish Police Authority was positive to the proposal. On the type of proposal to deport more people who have committed crimes: on 18 March 2026 the Council on Legislation advised against the government's proposal for stricter rules on deportation on grounds of crime, partly because the rules were changed as recently as 2022 and their effects had not yet been assessed. We have not found any statement by a public authority on the party's proposals for electronic tagging as the main rule for restraining orders, a financial task force against the criminal economy or a common EU police force.

On the type of proposal involving a language test and citizenship test, the Swedish National Agency for Education took no position on 13 April 2021 on the requirement itself, but advised against the agency being responsible for the tests and warned that teachers could end up exercising migration decisions. The Swedish Migration Agency supported, in the same month, that the knowledge should also be demonstrable through grades, and on 25 March 2025 broadly supported the proposals for stricter citizenship requirements. We have not found any agency statement on a ban on religious schools or on mandatory language preschool from the age of three.

On state support for new nuclear power, the Swedish Energy Agency held in its consultation response of 27 November 2024 that a model for financing and risk sharing should be market-based with a transparent and competitive procedure, and that the costs for electricity customers had not been sufficiently investigated. The Swedish Climate Policy Council writes in its report of 19 March 2026 that practically all consultation bodies, except some actors who could be directly affected, were critical of the proposal for nuclear power subsidies. The Council recommends simplified permitting processes for offshore wind power and that Sweden works for a strengthened emissions trading system within the EU. The statements concern the type of proposal.

On a named regular doctor: Vårdanalys reported on 31 March 2026 that the share who say they have a regular doctor rose from 26 per cent in 2024 to 31 per cent in 2025, while nearly six in ten say they need one. The agency writes that access varies between regions and links this to a shortage of doctors in primary care. On state responsibility for personal assistance (the type of proposal in SOU 2023:9): Försäkringskassan supported a single state body being responsible but wrote that the reform requires clear rules, time and funding, and opposed a start on 1 January 2026. ESV also supported it, but judged that municipal oversight would weaken and that ending municipal co-funding would probably raise state costs.

On a state takeover of schools, the Swedish National Agency for Education (Skolverket), in its response of 22 March 2023 to the inquiry The state's responsibility for schools (SOU 2022:53), judges that greater state responsibility is necessary but that full state ownership of schools would be too intrusive, time-consuming and costly in relation to the needs identified. Skolverket instead favours a stronger state role without the state becoming the responsible authority for schools. On a right to textbooks, Skolverket, in its response to the Teaching Materials Inquiry (SOU 2021:70), shares the view that access to teaching materials can be decisive for the quality and equity of teaching, but considers it inappropriate to regulate in law which medium the content is delivered in. On smaller classes, Skolverket writes in a 2009 research overview that class size and teacher density have a considerably larger effect for pupils with weaker preconditions for learning and little support at home.