but who doesn't love a puppet show?
Sweden's former prime minister just dragged Bernie Sanders for this Soviet love fest
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) loves Sweden. One of its former leaders doesn't exactly love him.
The 2020 contender has spent a lot of time praising Sweden and other Nordic countries for their policies focused on the working class. But in a Monday morning tweet, Sweden's ex-prime minister Carl Bildt took direct aim at a 1988 speech, in which Sanders lauded a far more socialist nation.
In the speech, then-congressman Sanders touted the "very very effective" transportation system, "chandeliers that were beautiful," and puppet shows he saw on a visit to the Soviet Union. The conservative Bildt sarcastically called out these "stunning socialist achievements" in his tweet, before mentioning that the socialist state later "collapsed under the weight of its own spectacular failures."
During the 2016 election cycle, Sanders' Scandinavian praise prompted then-presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to suggest Sanders would be "a really good candidate for president — of Sweden." He's only running for U.S. president right now, but it looks like he doesn't have Bildt's endorsement for either office.