This European Presidency could not have come at a better time for the Swedish Prime Minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, and his government. Nine months after the presidency, he will face national elections and, by then, is counting on having built up a strong personal image of himself as an international statesman in the eyes of Swedish voters.

The Conservative Reinfeldt beat the Social Democrats to power in 2006 – no mean feat in a country where Social Democrats have governed more or less undisturbed since the Second World War. True, a centre right coalition was twice voted in during this long reign, but the confusion this caused convinced every Swede that the Social Democrats were the safer bet after all and things were quickly restored to normal at the very next election.

This time, Reinfeldt has the distinct possibility of winning again and proving once and for all that Sweden can run according to rules and values other than social democratic ones.

In order to win, Reinfeldt had to adopt social democratic rhetoric and certain policies. His party, the Moderates, which in the days of more frank speaking were known as the Right Party, adopted the slogan ‘The new workers’ party’. They made their campaign promises creating jobs and defending the welfare system and the Swedish model – an undefined concept that stands for something good, uniquely Swedish and therefore has to be defended.

So far, Reinfeldt is doing well in his pursuit of voters. Even navigating the economic crisis with unemployment rising to unprecentedly high levels, does not seem to change that. This does not mean he is sure to win the next election. As every opinion poll has shown since the last election in 2006, the Social Democrats are still the biggest political party in Sweden with around 35% of votes compared to 27-29% for the Moderates.

No other political party comes anywhere near the big two and so they have lined up behind their favourites. The Liberals in Folkpartiet, the Centre Party and the Christian Democrats are all happy to be part of the government coalition with their not so big shares of votes (5-6% each) and work hard at not rocking the boat. The Greens and the Left Party – though inclined to be less disciplined and more troublesome – support Social Democratic Party leader Mona Sahlin, who has had to accept that the Social Democrats can probably not regain power on their own.

Reinfeldt´s strongest card may be the lack of trust in the new Social Democrat leader. Sahlin, who succeeds Goran Persson, has been in politics all her adult life and was chosen for her loyalty to the party and ability to communicate with ordinary people. But lately, she seems to have lost the knack and keeps shooting herself in the foot.

She came out strongly – as any Social Democrat would - in defence of the workers being laid off at Volvo and Saab, and demanded that the government put up the capital to save jobs. Oddly enough, public opinion was not with her on this one. Instead people were outraged that the American owners of Volvo and Saab had sapped the Swedish companies of resources.

Sahlin was equally vigorous – again as any Social Democrat would – against bonuses and golden handshakes to finance gurus, in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Public opinion was behind her on this one, but turned against her when it was disclosed that her best buddy and close ally in the trade union (Wanja Lundby-Wedin, also president of the European Trade Union Confederation) had made large sums of money sitting on company boards and voting through high bonuses to company executives.

In another move, Sahlin placed a well-known EU critic at the top of her party’s list for the European elections in June. That should have been a safe bet. In the last European elections, Swedish voters abandoned the major political parties and gave 15% of their votes to Junilistan – a brand new anti-EU party. But this time, Junilistan did not even make 3% and lost all its seats. The only other critics of the EU, the Left Party, also suffered. Instead, the most EU positive party, Folkpartiet, doubled its share. So did the Greens, having recently taken the bold step of converting from EU critics to EU supporters.

While Sahlin flounders, the prime minister keeps a cool head and is rewarded in opinion polls with 64% of voters declaring trust in him. Only 21% say they trust Sahlin, the leader of Sweden’s biggest political party.

Sullenly, opposition parties have refused to promise Reinfeldt they will stay loyal during the EU Presidency so he can concentrate on the tasks ahead. This should not present a real problem since all parties in the Swedish parliament basically agree on the larger EU issues.

There is total consensus on the need for drastic measures on climate change and on Sweden taking domestic efforts even further than other countries. There is no dispute on the European measures needed to tackle the economic crisis. Except for the Left Party, which took a beating in the European elections, no party has any problems with the Lisbon Treaty.

So, the six-month EU Presidency should run smoothly for Reinfeldt´s government in the national political arena. If, on top of that, things work out as they did for former Prime Minister Goran Persson during Sweden´s stint at the EU helm in 2001, it will give Reinfeldt some excellent photo opportunities to be seen shaking hands or making small talk with foreign political leaders such as Gordon Brown, Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel and best of all - Barack Obama. Then his luck may well be made, in the run up to the national elections in September 2010.