The Big Bad Swedish Politics & News Thread

[DavidB.]

.... and there's much talk about Sweden implementing a 6-hour workday, which could also be seen as "progressive reform".

That talk about Sweden implementing a 6-hour workday has really been blown totally out of proportion. Of course I would personally be very supportive of such a thing, but what's happened here is really only that a few (mostly minor, aside from Toyota) private companies have moved towards a 6-hour workday and some Red-Green municipalities are also doing so on trial basis in elderly care. We are incredibly far away from ever implementing a 6-hour workday in terms of national legislation or even industry-wide collective agreements.

Fair enough, thanks for explaining I didn't really know what this was about (that's also why I said "much talk about"), and Dutch media have a record of preferring sweeping stories about Sweden as a progressive paradise instead of talking about reality.

[DavidB.]

Does this open the door to right-wing cooperation with SD a little bit more? At this point, would most of the people who voted for a former Alliance party consider cooperation with SD acceptable?

[DavidB.]

Only in Scandinavia.

(and Finland)

[DavidB.]

Good God, that idea hadn't even crossed my mind! :S Why do loony right-wingers and left-wingers get to spend my tax money?!

Well, as for the loony left: because the center right is keeping them in the government

What are the chances that the 2016 budget vote (which will take place in November or December?) will be similar to last year's outcome: a majority consisting of former Alliance parties + SD that votes for the Moderate budget? It seems like the Moderates and KD are done with propping up the government, although the Liberals and the Center Party might spoil this chance to topple it.

[DavidB.]

Ah, I was already wondering where that large amount of common sense in your thinking stemmed from. Turns out it's Denmark.

Only joking

On a more serious note, I don't think that making this difference between Swedes with a Western background and a non-Western background changes much of the calculation.

Moreover, while the "ceteris paribus" assumption is obviously the problematic one in this calculation (but that is hardly avoidable and not necessarily relevant), I am not convinced that this is a temporary crisis. Even if the current level of immigration will not continue for 10 or 15 years, it is clear that these number will be high, and that Sweden, given the attitude of both the population and the political elites (which is more positive than in most other Western European countries), will take in a greater share than proportional. I think numbers somewhat lower than the current ones will be the "new normal", since conflicts close to Europe will continue to exist and drive people to a continent that is both safe and prosperous. The effects of climate change will also lead to more people leaving the Middle East and West Africa, and it seems unrealistic to assume that these people will opt for e.g. Morocco and Turkey instead of Europe.

[DavidB.]

In the 90s professor in demographics P.C. Mathiesen proposed that Denmark should have an Immigration Commission, where demographers, economists etc. could create prognoses of how immigration would affect Denmark in various areas, but the idea was blocked by Radikale, who claimed such numbers would be "abused". I think Danish debate would have been a lot more rational if based on the detailed studies Mathiesen wanted to conduct, and if Sweden wants to keep taking anywhere near as many refugees as you do now, you should establish an Immigration Commission to do some serious number crunching - also on the delicate matters like ethnicity. Of course that would be even harder to get accepted in Sweden.

Loving your rational contributions on this issue in general, but this idea seems especially interesting. Obviously not going to happen in the Netherlands, let alone in Sweden, but this seems like a very original idea.

However, the outcome of such a debate in society would probably not lead to the outcome many politicians desire, and that's where we're back at the point that the internationalism/progressivism of social democratic parties clashes with the wishes/interests of its core voters, which is why parties try to avoid this debate.

(At this point we could probably rename this thread to: The Big Bad Western European Immigration & News - And Oh Yeah, SD Would Go Through The Roof In The Next Election - Thread)

[DavidB.]

SD claims KD is getting closer to their views, which Thor obviously denies. Seems a bit shortsighted of Åkesson to undermine KD like that. A stronger KD would be a strategic advantage for SD - pressuring M towards the right.

Either an indication that they are indeed shortsighted and unstrategic, or an indication that SD is primarily vote-seeking rather than policy-seeking or office-seeking and wants to remain credible as "the only real opposition party" in order to win big in the next election.

[DavidB.]

Swedish Leftist politicians apparently attended an anti-semitic rally in Malmö:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

http://www.thelocal.se/20151020/swedish-slaughter-the-jews-rally-grabs-criticism

Not surprising, still disappointing. The Swedish left has much more in common with the nazis they despise than the Sweden Democrats, imo.

[DavidB.]

In the worst best case scenario, Sweden could become the new Denmark in the not too distant future.

ftfy

But I wouldn't count on that, seeing as even the much more immigration-realist Netherlands, sadly, doesn't manage to become "the new Denmark".

[DavidB.]

Indeed, they would be respectable DPP politicians in Denmark.

You're more intelligent than this.

[DavidB.]

Hey David!! I met someone the other day!! Who I think you'd really like!! It was in the YouTube comment section! He was saying how, as a black man, when people called him a lazy, subhuman horde it wasn't racism, it was actually about ethics in multiculturalism! I thought "wow, I bet David would love a fellow fake minority to talk to."

Please tell me more about me being a "fake minority" or how I need to show solidarity to people who want to kill me just because my family were immigrants, lmao.

Actually, no, please don't. You're not interesting and what you're saying is not interesting.

[DavidB.]

I swear to God, if you guys keep derailing this thread any longer by turning it into yet another thread where people name call others for being racist or what ever I will pull a Politicus and delete it. The thread is here for people to have sensible discussions about Swedish news and politics, not whether you think Denmark is the worst thing on this planet. Which is a ridiculous discussion that has no place here.

I am sorry for my share of derailing. You know I like this thread very much and have contributed to it in the past. Just felt the need to reply to some particularly bizarre remarks.

Meanwhile, SD has declined in the polls a little, now being somewhere between 16% and 20% -- consistently below both S and M.

[DavidB.]

Why the f are we talking about Gandhi in the Sweden thread. Just sayin'.

According to Immigration Minister Morgan Johansson, Sweden cannot guarantee finding accommodation for any new immigrants. It applies for EU aid in order to cope with the expenses of taking in so many migrants.

[DavidB.]

This thread is about Sweden, not about Gandhi.

Something entirely different: Moderaterna MP Finn Bengtsson has introduced a bill to ban all circumcision that is not considered medically necessary. As far as I know, such a ban would be the first one in Europe. Question to Swedish posters: what are the chances this bill will pass? Will the left see this in the perspective of religious minority rights, or will it consider this a "humanist, progressive" thing to do? SD will surely vote for this, whereas Liberals and Christian Democrats will likely not want to change the status-quo, I think.

[DavidB.]

New Sentio poll has SD at 26,8%.

[DavidB.]

Lmao

[DavidB.]

The Swedish Red-Green Government held a press conference this afternoon, introducing several new measures to restrict and limit the high number of refugees. The new measures that will be introduced are the following:

• The Aliens Act will be adjusted so that Sweden accepts the EU minimum level of refugees. This will apply for three years.

Does this mean that Sweden will only accept the EU minimum, which I assume, or does it mean that Sweden will at least accept the minimum?

Green Deputy Prime Minister Åsa Romson cried during the press conference.

.....

[DavidB.]

Episode 99 in the series named "the Swedish government's car crash foreign policy". Undoubtedly, many will follow.

[DavidB.]

Question to the Swedish posters: if I want to find Swedish election results by municipality in the past, where should I look? I am thinking of the 1950s onwards.

[DavidB.]

Thank you so much!

[DavidB.]

Excellent idea...

[DavidB.]

Something weird is going on with the Swedish opinion polls. Sentio, YouGov and Inizio structurally have SD a lot higher than SKOP and Demoskop. Of course polling radical right-wing parties is generally risky business, but even then I find the differences to be extraordinarily large, sometimes over 10%.

[DavidB.]

YouGov poll:

SD 28.8
S 21.6
M 21.4
V 7.5
C 6.8
MP 4.2
L 4.0
KD 3.1
F! 2.0

SD and M have a majority of 50.2%. A lot can happen in almost three years...

[DavidB.]

Is there anything going on in Sweden?

[DavidB.]

Given the fact that the Sweden Democrats mainly take votes from the (former?) Alliance it seems likely that the left-wing parties will once again win a plurality in the next election. Does this mean the left will continue to have the initiative to form governments until the right is prepared to negotiate with the Sweden Democrats? That would be pretty insane given that more than 55% could vote for non-left-wing parties, but obviously the Alliance are at fault for that.