The Moderate Party and the Social Democrats must start driving more for the euro and take a clearer stance on the issue, according to financier Christer Gardell.
"They will need to do so as the euro will become a key issue in the next election", he writes in an email to TT.
The statement comes as an SCB survey shows that support for the euro among Swedish voters continues to increase for the second year in a row, up to 34.4 per cent. This can be compared to 23 per cent two years ago.
The proportion of those who would vote no is now below the 50-per-cent mark, according to the same survey.
"The Swedes are clever"
Gardell has been driving the debate to introduce the euro in Sweden for some time and he is not surprised by the trend in public opinion.
"The arguments are strong and the Swedes are clever", he writes.
He expects support for introducing the euro to continue to increase.
"Before the election (2026), it will be a significant majority", he writes, adding that Sweden will then be ready to make tough decisions on the euro issue – despite the no in the referendum in 2003.
TT: When do you think Sweden will have introduced the euro?
"Immediately after the 2026 election."
"Fosters foreign investments"
Gardell's most important argument for introducing the euro is that, according to him, it will make the Swedes richer. Moreover, it would mean that "an unnecessary obstacle for business is eliminated", according to the financier.
"It fosters foreign investments in Sweden and, not least, we will have more to say in the EU", he adds.
Gardell – who, with his activist fund Cevian Capital, is an influential investor on several European stock exchanges – contributed to sparking the euro debate in December 2022 when he, in a TT interview, described the krona as "a small crap currency".
