Sweden: scandal over lottery for party financing
For decades, the sale of lottery tickets has been an important source of income for the Swedish Social Democratic Party, but it is now making negative headlines: the telemarketing firm Kombispel apparently coerced senior citizens and people with dementia into buying tickets and also appears to have links to organised crime. The party denies any knowledge of such activities and has announced a "proper clean-up".
Yet more hypocrisy
The double standards of the main opposition party are glaringly obvious, Expressen comments:
“It's interesting to note the superior tone the Social Democrats adopt vis-à-vis the government. ... The think tank Katalys, which is financed by various trade union associations, this week published a hysterical document accusing the conservative coalition parties [which cooperated with the far-right Sweden Democrats] of endangering democracy, comparing them to Nazi Germany and the communist regime in China. But not every detail of the Social Democratic funding machine is a load-bearing wall in Sweden's democratic structure.”
Put an end to this shady business
Svenska Dagbladet calls for a radical break:
“It is as incomprehensible as it is repulsive that the Social Democrats have made themselves financially dependent on an activity that is so close to organised crime, both literally and figuratively. ... The fundamental problem with the Social Democrats' lottery ticket sales is the business idea itself, which is why dubious methods have been exposed at Kombispel on numerous occasions, most recently in 2023. The party leadership blamed everything on the telemarketing company hired to carry out the dirty work back then, too. If the Social Democrats are serious about cleaning up their act, there's only one thing to do: voluntarily withdraw from the lottery business. Anything else would be to continue the hypocrisy.”