"This demand is going to be an extremely important one for us," the party's leader, Ebba Busch, told TT in an interview ahead of the start of her party's congress in Jönköping on Friday.
In Sweden, couples get 480 days of leave to share between them, 390 days of which are based on their salaries, and three months of which are dedicated, use-it-or-lose-it, for each parent (they're often called the "daddy months", although in theory they could be claimed by the mother).
"We want to have a completely free parental leave. Scrap all quotas!" Busch said at a press conference at the congress on Friday.
The proposal was immediately criticised by the Liberal Party, the Christian Democrats' partners in government, with Sweden's equality minister Nina Larsson, who represents the Liberals, calling it "completely 'off'".
"The public strongly supports the Daddy months," she said. "But they have every right to make their own proposals."
In the TT interview, Busch repeated her criticism of Ulf Kristersson's promise to give the Sweden Democrats influence over migration and integration in a future Tidö government, saying that this would increase the price of the Christian Democrats' support.
READ ALSO: How to make the most of your 480 days of parental leave in Sweden
"The more the others negotiate before election day, the better the negotiating position they are putting the Christian Democrats in after the election," she said.
The other big policy shift the Christian Democrats are in favour of is shifting responsibility for healthcare provision from regional governments to the central government.
She said she also believed the party deserved more ministerial positions than would be suggested by their share of the vote in an election victory, "because we are skillful and do a good job for Sweden".
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