Right-Wing Populists Tried to Close Sweden’s Schools. Governing Social Democrats Resisted and Kept Them Open.

The Swedish center-left government kept schools open as the right-wing opposition fought to close them.

Sweden’s Social Democratic education minister is being increasingly vocal about her government’s decision to keep schools open in March 2020 as other countries raced to close them. Yesterday, Anna Ekström shared an interesting opinion column by center-left newspaper columnist Henrik Jalalian on her Twitter feed:

With evidence emerging from around the world that extended pandemic school closures were a disaster for children, Jalalian takes the opportunity to praise Sweden’s Social Democratic government for having resisted demands from the opposition Sweden Democrats — a right-wing populist party similar to France’s National Rally or Italy’s League — to shutter schools in March 2020.

When the pandemic swept over Sweden, the Sweden Democrats’ opinion figures dropped like a rock. Jimmie Åkesson was criticized for standing and snorting in the lectern and going to the pub , when others stayed at home. The party generally seemed to grope for a position…