Wearing tortoiseshell-rimmed glasses, an expressionless gaze and a neat physique, the leader of the moderate conservatives, 58, campaigned in Sweden’s September general election vowing to fight crime and rising electricity prices.
A former gymnast, he is photographed living an active life, running or walking in nature with his dog Winston, the Welsh springer spaniel he received after losing the 2018 Swedish election.
At the time, Kristersson vowed never to negotiate with Sweden’s nationalist and anti-immigration democrats, then considered “pariahs” on the country’s political scene, and failed to topple the Social Democratic government in place since 2014.
Fast forward four years and was given his revenge, after a first change.
Kristersson began exploratory talks with the Sweden Democrats in 2019, a cooperation that has deepened over the years, persuading the moderates’ center-right allies to do the same.
His critics accused him of “selling out” to the right. Kristersson defended the rapprochement as “my aspect of politics. “
Together, 4 right-wing parties won the election, unseating the Social Democrats, who have ruled Swedish politics since the 1930s.
While the new one will be composed of moderates, Christian Democrats and liberals, it will have the parliamentary support of the Sweden Democrats to give the majority.
The 4 presented a 62-page roadmap for their cooperation, heavily influenced by the right, with primary crackdowns on crime and immigration and the structure of new nuclear reactors, among others.
A Tintin fan with a degree in economics, Kristersson had campaigned on issues close to the hearts of right-wing and far-right voters, earning him complaints as a softer edition of the Sweden Democrats.
He vowed to crack down on migration and crime and “turn around” a Sweden he said has lost too many problems, ranging from skyrocketing gang shootings to high unemployment and a shortage of midwives and messy classrooms.
“A Sweden that doesn’t paint has become the new normal,” the campaign said.
Kristersson has also committed to raising electric power prices.
Their incoming alliance, which will take over on Tuesday last week, would build new nuclear reactors, after decades of nuclear phase-out in Sweden.
Born in the southern Swedish city of Lund in 1963, Kristersson became familiar with politics as a teenager in high school and took over as leader of the moderate youth wing a few years later.
He rose temporarily through the ranks of the party and was elected to parliament in 1994.
He took occasional breaks from politics to work in communications and as chairman of the board of directors of an adoption agency. Kristersson is married and has 3 daughters in a row in China.
“Kristersson may go down in history as a far-right locksmith” who opened the door to the acceptance of Swedish Democrats on the political scene, leading daily Dagens Nyheter wrote ahead of the election.
At the time, however, Kristersson may simply not have foreseen that by giving his blessing, the right would overtake moderates as the largest right-wing party and the second largest party in the country in the general election.
His electoral victory would possibly have saved his political career.
“The view moderates have of their party leader is similar to that of the chief executive of an indexed company: As long as everything goes well, you can stay, but if it goes wrong, you have to leave the same day,” he said. political historian Torbjorn Nilsson.