Anna-Karin Hat: You must not be afraid of power

Formally, she is still CEO of LRF but if no sensational occurs, Anna-Karin Hatt is elected on Saturday as a new party leader for the Center Party, and on Monday she can submit her resignation application. Thus, she makes a comeback in politics after ten years of absence and will lead a party that wrestles with both identity crisis and weak opinion figures.

Therefore, it is perhaps no wonder that she first refused to become a new party leader before she changed a few days later.

Why did you do that?

– I did not have a thought of coming back, either to politics or to a party leadership. I needed some time to live in myself but also based on what is the assignment.

You must have thought through this before you said no. What was it that made you change?

– It has been a puzzle in many ways. Partly to really feel that I could have the whole center party with me and I feel that I have. But I needed some time to live on the issue, because this is also a genuine life -changing decision that I have just made

Do you feel that you got a stronger mandate by first saying no and then yes?

– I feel that I could get a strong mandate right from the start. I did not say no for any kind of tactical reasons to be able to get a strong mandate. This was more about my own process.

Anna-Karin Hatt says she wants to become a party leader to make a difference. At the same time, party leadership entails a place in public, with all that it entails in the form of constant surveillance and harsh attacks from political opponents.

Is there something that attracts?

– To be able to change, you need a position. You need power. You must not be afraid of power and to use it. And in a political party, it is incredibly important to be able to communicate both with its members but also with voters. Then the public comes with it. So I see it as part of the assignment.

She sees the Center Party as a « green, liberal force » that is at the center of politics. Jobs, entrepreneurship, climate and rural areas are priority areas and she is critical of how the current government handles these issues.

– The climate is the fate issue of our time, but we have a government that has chosen a climate policy that crackles. Which leads to Sweden seems to miss every one of our climate goals. It is not enough. A government that the Center Party will participate in or support forward will be a government that puts climate policy in the high seat.

In recent years, several studies and opinion polls have shown that the Center Party voters are leaning more to the left than the party’s representatives do.

Is this something that the Center needs to adapt to?

– You have to keep track of where you have your support and where you have your opportunity. But the most important thing for a political party is to be very clear in what it is we go to elections in substance. Then I think we will be able to attract people from different parts of the political landscape.

Why should a bourgeois -minded voter put their vote on you and not on the Moderates or Liberals?

– We have a soaring unemployment. We have bankruptcies that are at record levels. They will cast their vote on the Center Party because the incumbent government has increased the costs for the companies, but they have not been properly addressed with regulatoryness. For jobs and entrepreneurs for the climate – if you want a policy where you really get the job done, then you should choose to vote for the Center Party.

Outgoing C-leader Muharrem Demirok met resistance in his own party when he wanted to put his foot on the government issue. He has previously said that Magdalena Andersson is the most suitable to become prime minister, but when he wanted to make the party decide, the internal pressure became so great that he chose to resign. Now Anna-Karin Hatt is inherited the question.

How should voters understand what the center can really accomplish as long as you do not support a government alternative?

– Every government that we will be part of or cooperate with or release needs to be a government that is prepared to implement the policy that we think is important and that we have gone to elections. It will be the essence for us forward.

Will you support a government alternative before the next election?

– I see that those discussions need to land. I look forward to taking responsibility for them landing so that in good time before the next election we can return with a clear message about what we go to elections on when it comes to collaboration issues going forward.

The Center Party’s opposition to collaboration with the Swedish Democrats was an important explanation for the former alliance split after the 2018 election. While the Liberals abandoned their resistance, C has stuck to their attitude.

– I have not met a single center party so far that has asked me or thought that the Center Party should open for organized collaboration with the Swedish Democrats. So that line from the Center Party I see will be fixed even in the future.

What kind of collaboration could you think of with the Left Party?

– There are many different types of collaborations or individual agreements that can be discussed. We will live in it and discuss and land in a clear approach. When we have done so, I will come back about it.

Already on Sunday, Anna-Karin Hatt will be thrown into the political hot air when she, as a newly elected C-leader, will participate SVT’s live party leadership debate.

– It will be a flying start. Being elected party leader on Saturday and then being given the opportunity to already be part of my first day and clarify what we in the Center Party think are important issues.

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