Liberals call for lower taxes at party congress

Liberal party leader Jan Björklund has rallied members during a speech at the party conference in Växjö calling for lower taxes, developments in nuclear power production and for Sweden to adopt the euro as its currency.

• Liberals open to Green support to block far-right (23 Oct 09)
• Swedish forces to remain in Afghanistan (22 Oct 09)
• 'Renationalize Sweden's schools': Liberals (20 Oct 09)

Björklund led proceedings on the second day of the congress on Friday with foreign policy issues high on the agenda.

Expressing his support for Swedish military in Afghanistan, he told members that, among other assignments, the mission of Swedish soldiers is to protect the rights of girls to attend school.

”The Taliban are burning down schools and spraying acid in the eyes of schoolgirls,” he said and continued by attacking the opposition Left Party for proposing to withdraw troops.

Björklund also took issue with what he called the “intellectual cultural left” for using the US as a hate object, stating that democracy would not have existed in the world after 1945 if it had not been for America.

His outburst of criticism against fellow parties continued when he singled out the Greens for demanding that households should look towards small-scale local farmers for fresh food produce.

“The Green Party’s attitude to trade is directly hostile to developing countries,” he said.

Björklund also pointed towards a number of changes that he sees necessary to promote economic growth in Sweden and proposes a move to reduce taxes, beginning with the abolition of the the so-called temporary austerity levy (värnskatt).

Within enterprise, he wants to see improvements in employment law which affect small and medium-sized companies when having to down-size.

Björklund concluded that he remains positive towards the future development of nuclear power both for the sake of the environment and for industry.