The Big Bad Swedish Politics & News Thread

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

The left sweeps the ground with the right on all issues but one, including the two that actually matters (education and job creation), and the thing MA takes from it is that its unfair that voters don't think the left is best at everything. Are left-wingers never happy?

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

Man we're really spammed by polls this week. Two more on specific issues, with one decissive victory for the left and one decissive victory for the right.

Parental-leave: (by SIFO)
(This one might need a bit of explaining if you're from a country that only has maternity leave*)

75% - Parents should be free to decide by themselves how to divide their leave between them.
20% - It should be equally divided 50/50 between the parents.
5% - Not sure/No oppinion

Lower taxes vs more money to welfere: (by SIFO)

82% - More money to the welfere system is more important
14% - Lower taxes is more important
4% - Not sure/No oppinion



*Today Swedish parents have the right to 480 days of parental-leave for a child. Both the mother and the father needs to take some of the time, meaning one parent can't hog all 480 days for themselves, but parents are mostly free to divide the days between them as they wish. The centre-left parties wants to change this so that parents always must have 240 days each.



 

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

Something strange is going on here

Something strange is certainly going on in this poll. Looks like an out-liner to me.

Yep, it almost feels as if half of all major political events of a non-election year happens during this little week. Though that's probably just because outside of Almedalen swedish politics is generally a slow affair.

It really wasn't this boring before the 2010 election though. Between 02-06 there was the Euro referendum, the Anna Lind tragedy, the Gudrun Schyman tax scandal, the creation and rise of the Alliance, the Tsunami and the political consequences of that. And after 06 we had the reforms in the social security system, the abolishion of the draft (in peace-time), same-sex marriage, the economic crisis, the whole bloody mess that was SAAB, and much more.

While for these three years the only political news of note has been 1) Everyone hates the Sweden Democrats, 2) Everyone hates Håkan Juholt, and 3) Everyone hates Annie Lööf.
No political reforms or new ideas what so ever, and no real political scandal besides Juholt and Lööf not being able to fill their roles as leaders.       

Has the school holiday season already started ? Otherwise, they may have underpolled Stockholm, which appears to be a Green stronghold and shows little SD support.

Btw.: Just found this thread (I had not expected it in this sub-forum, rather in "International Elections"). Good stuff, very interesting.

Yes it has, and vaccations should be in full swing now as well, so it might just be an ordinary bad summer poll. We'll see.

And welcome to the thread.

And yes, I have also noticed how much Swedish and German politics are similar. Both in policy and in political trends. The Swedish Greens especially, always seem to be a few years behind yours, while your Pirates are a few years behind ours.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

The red-green opposition parties presented fresh the same old ideas of the Persson regime and criticized the government's inaction made unrealistic promises on unemployment and education (though none of the three actually can agree on education), while the government criticized the opposition, claimed there exists no opposition, attacked their own policies and presented opposition ideas as their own. (A tactic Social Democratic goverments showed for 80 years was a very effective way to win elections)

I fixed it for you.


You know, the more I think about it, the more I'm starting to believe that an S+Mp+Fp coalition would be the best possible option after the next elections.

1) The Alliance government is tired and out of ideas and Kd and C desperatley need to be in opposition for a bit to get back in the game.

2) It would give us a pragmatic centrist government with solid economic values, and no influence from the commies.

3) It would be a flexible government that could make agreements with V when they wanted to, and the right when they wanted to.

4) It would drive some of the left-wingers on here mad, with the S and Mp "selling out to neoliberalism" And that is always fun.

Naturally it would only happen if the Red-Greens get less than 50% of seats.

 

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

Not as fun as it would be for us watching them get destroyed at the elections (because funnily enough it is not just forum leftists opposed to neoliberalism).

We get a centrist government, left-wingers gets fuzzy, and there's great potential of S loosing big in the election due to disgrunted left-wingers... it's only getting better and better.

Would such a traffic-light coalition work in Sweden? It was tried a few times on State level in Germany, and always  failed miserably (typically the FDP walked out on a minor issue after 2-3 years). In general, coalitions involving both the Greens and the FDP were a disaster here (the black-green-yellow "Jamaica" coalition on the Saar was in 2012 killed by the FDP, while CDU and Greens got along reasonably well with each other).

FDP and FP are two very different creatures actually, but you are correct that there would be problem-areas between Greens and Liberals, especially on Nuclear Power and Education. Though none of the three left-wing parties agree on education either, so on that point it's rather moot anyway.

Right-wing press (which includes 90% of Swedish newspapers) would probably attack the party very strongly if they joined a coalition lead by the Social Democrats.

Yeah yeah, 90% of Swedish newspapers are owned by the right, and 90% of their employees vote for the left, we've heard it all before. Funny that neither left nor right ever does anything wrong, it's just the biased media twisting their actions.

Actually as Tayya says, it's really the media that is hyping the idea of a S+Mp+Fp coalition. And I think even the neoliberal editorial authors in the press prefer to have Fp on the inside in a centrist government than to have a pure left government that's dependant on the commies.

You're of course right that their voters might be pissed. (Just as C voters after their '94-'98 collaboration with the S government.)

 

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

The former idea seems to have more truth in it than the latter though.  Ftr, I do not in any way think that the Swedish left are flawless - my "90%" estimate (which referred to the papers' editorial lines) was not intended as partisan hackery, though it can obviously appear that way. It is simply my impression from the Swedish newspapers that I've read that the majority leans right: While the left have Aftonbladet, the centre-right have DN, SvD, Expressen, etc.

The editorial lines are a majority centre-right and there are several polls and reserch showing unproportinal support for the centre-left among journalists, but it's hardly close 90% on either side. Neither does it really matter that much, because unrelated to their political agenda, the number one agenda of both journalists and paper owners is to get people to read their crap, and they'll use any sort of scandal and fear-mongering to achive that.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

Has there been any CDU+FDP+GRN coalitions anywhere?

For what it's worth, there's actually several coalitions on the regional level where FP and MP are both included and seem to get along: Skåne, Halland, Jönköping, Värmland, Västernorrland, and Södermanland.

The coalition in Södermanland is actually a S+Fp+Mp coalition, and the leader for FP there wrote an editorial last week saying that he thinks his party should be open to the same solution on the national level. So it seem the cooperation is going well there.   

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2054&artikel=5598392
It's what he does.

It's what politicians do.

"To err is human, to blame others is politics"

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

You know, the more I think about it, the more I'm starting to believe that an S+Mp+Fp coalition would be the best possible option after the next elections.

Since there have been no intresting political developments since Almedalen, and no new polls, I have amused myself by creating a potential S+Mp+Fp cabinet. Doesn't look too bad actually.

Prime Minister - Stefan Löfvén (S)   
      
Minister of Finance - Magdalena Andersson (S)   
Minister of Foreign Affairs    - Maria Wetterstrand (Mp)   
Minister of Justice - Thomas Bodström (S)   
Minister of Defense -  Allan Widman (Fp)   
      
Minister of Education - Carin Jämtin   (S)
Minister of Social Affairs - Erik Ullenhag (Fp)    
Minister of Rural Affairs - Terese Bengard (S)   
Minister of Environment     Åsa Romson (Mp)   
Minister of Enterprise - Tomas Eneroth (S)   
Minister of Immigration and Equality - Gustav Fridolin (Mp) *As well as deputy PM   
Minister of Labour - Ylva Johansson    (S)
Minister of Culture -   Leif Pagrotsky   (S)
      
Minister of EU affairs - Birgita Ohlsson (Fp)   
Minister of Foreign Aid - Evin Cetin (S)   
Minister of Child- & Elder-care - Gunvor G. Ericson (Mp)   
Minister of Social Security - Veronica Palm (S)   
Minister of Financial Markets - Jens Henriksson (S)   
Minister of Science -   Peter Honeth (Fp)   
Minister for regions and infrastructure - Sven-Erik Bucht (S)   
Minister of Energy - Ann-Kristine Johansson (S)   

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

^ I have serious doubts that SAP would be willing part with two of the big four ministries like Foreign Affairs and Defense, excepting something like a grand coalition. After all, the Moderates haven't done it either. Otherwise it looks pretty good. Though I sure as hell hope that something like this will never come to fruition.

If SAP had its way they wouldn't part with any ministry. (ever)
For a party that is supposedly about sharing, they sure are a greedy bunch. But it's not like its coalition partners would allow them to concentrate all the important offices to themselves. 

The Moderates were only able to take all of the great four in 2006 because Olofsson preferred to take the Enterprise ministry over the Foreign Affairs one and because Carl Bildt was seen as such a formidable candidate. In all previous coalition governments in Sweden at least one of the great offices has been hold by a different party than the one holding the Premiership.

If anything the experience from the current Alliance government is that its a really bad idea for the smaller parties to let themselves be marginalized by concentrating the  big offices to the largest one.

The Greens looks like they'll have a good election and will be in a strong position when negotiations rolls along, taking the Foreign Affairs post either for Wetterstrand or Fridolin will be on their mind, and as SAP seem unlikely to have a strong candidate, I see it as pretty likely.

As for Defense, my reasoning was that S would need to give Fp something for giving up Education. Giving them Education in a coalition also containing the Greens would of course be impossible. Since Defense is one of FP's profile areas while SAP doesn't have a strong candidate for the position (Their most merited Defense politician being a man with a mustache who'll never be allowed in a government) it seemed like a fair compromise.     

And it's also worth noting, that this is my idea of how a good, mostly competent coalition would look. As your party has a long tradition of putting the wrong persons on the wrong posts (*host*Laila Freivalds *host*Bosse Ringholm *host*) I'm sure an actual S+Mp+Fp coalition would look nothing like this.       

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

21 Ministries- is Sweden trying to compete with the European Commission?

You can integrate Labour & Social Affairs, Environment & Energy, Education & Science, Enterprise & Financial Markets, Foreign Affairs & EU Affairs (or add EU affairs to the PM portfolio, and put Foreign Aid to Foreign Affairs).

Don't you have a Ministry of Interior ?

We actually have 25 ministers currently. I removed some.
But as Marbury correctly said, not all of them have their own ministries. We only have 13 ministries. (including the Prime Minister's Office.)

And why would we have a Minister of Interior? I have never understod what one of those are actually suppouse to do.

I find the talk of an S-Fp-Mp (more likely S-Mp-Fp) coalition intriguing. Has it been seriously discussed at any level in Sweden? What about other centrist coalitions?

Södermanland is currently governed by a S+Fp+Mp coalition, and the regional FP leader wrote an editorial a few weeks ago saying the national party should consider the idea. But it's only gonna happen if the left is bigger than the Alliance, but fail to get 175 seats.

The Centre Party has historically been willing to govern with the left sometimes (just as in Norway) but that is seen as very unlikely at the moment.
The Alliance + Greens are also a often discussed idea, and very common on the regional and local levels. 

EDIT: Welcome to the forum btw. It's always nice to have more Nordics here. (Especially centre-right ones.)

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

And why would we have a Minister of Interior? I have never understod what one of those are actually suppouse to do.

Because you want to separate executive from judiciary powers. The Ministry of Justice is responsible for the judiciary system, drafts new legislation, especially public and criminal law, and carries out regulatory impact assessment on legislation prepared by other ministries. The Ministry of Interior controls police, prosecutors, jails, border police, fire-fighters and so on, and oversees the public sector (post classification, compensations & benefits, training, etc.).

So that's what an Interior Ministry is suppose to do! I actually had no idea.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

Right now I'm a few hours into the Social Democratic Youth congress, where I'm proudly representing my district as a delegate. Lots of interesting discussions going on like last night with the principles committee apparently having some heated discussions about switching out Democratic Socialism for Social Democracy in our principle program. Brings backs memories of the heavy factional infighting between the right and left during the 90s and early 2000s. Though this specific issue won't be big fight since there's a majority in favor of keeping it the way it is.

Good to hear you're having fun. Youth congresses are suppose to be.
And the most heated discussions always seem to be about the most trivial issues. At the Centre Youth Congress in May we had a several hours long debate on whether it should be mandatory to visit a farm in Elementary school between the Libertarian faction and the Farmer faction.

Though you should fire however decided the location for '13 should be Täby. I'm sure someone thought it smart to put it in Reinfeldt's home town, but it must be the most boring Suburb in the entire country. 

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

You whip the delegates... at a party congress... for the Youth Organisation???!!!
I knew that SSU was really bad when it comes the factional wars, but that's not something I would have thought in my wildest anti-Social Democratic dreams. I mean, how anti-democratic can a democratic party actually get? Aren't you suppouse to be the Peoples' Movement party. How can you be that if you're not even allowing delegates to have their own opinions even on a party congresses?   
You guys really need to drop this whole civil war schtick if you want to survive in the long run. 
Good to hear you stood your ground and voted with your heart though.

We have a lot of factional battles in CUF as well, but the idea that I for example would be forced to vote for a flat tax because because my district is majority Libertarian, or that Hanna Wagenius would be forced to vote for the monarchy because her district is Farmer dominated would be absurd to us.

Anyway rant over.

Hosting the congress is lots of fun so you guys should definable try to get it to your district next year. Though why settle with Sundsvall, show them some real deep red Labour area and take them all the way home to Kramfors.  

In other news, I received my preselection ballot for the Centre Party list for the EP elections today. I will have a long night researching all the 90!! candidates.   

       

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

Seriously? Whipping at a youth congress? Swedes...

Do not judge the rest of us for SSU. I'm as shocked as you are. 

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

I guess it's a clash of ideology between a collectivist and statist ideal on the Socialist parties where individuls are not allowed to put themselves ahead of the group as opposed to the free individualist ideal of Green and Liberal parties. 

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

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Every time I see Carin Jämtin's name combined with any powerful position I want to move to another country.

At least she's an asset for the right. I can't wait until we have Subway butlers on the national level.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

Re: Jämtin - she's apparently doing a good job as Party Secretary, so I imagine she's a decent manager, just absurdly out of touch when it comes to actual issues. Why I gave her Foreign Affairs? No idea. Bizarre in retrospect.

It's not very bizarre at all, a lot of people have mentioned her as a potential S Foreign Affairs minister. And there is of course a long tradition of Swedish governments to always have one person on the big four who's completly incompetent at their job but who happens to be a very loyal servant to the party. Beatrice Ask, Leila Feivalds, Bosse Ringholm.

Still the fact that it's realistic doesn't make me like the idea any more.

The only thing I find unrealistic with your line up is that the Greens would never sit in a goverment that had a FP education minister, even if it was a more social liberal one like Arnholm. And I have never once heard Fridolin talk about about Enterprise issues, so I have no idea why he'd want that post.

EDIT: Oh and as much as I like Stefan Holm, he wouldn't want to be a minister.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

One Left Party politician from their Youth Organisation was tragecly killed in some gun violence in Somalia today. The 24-year-old man was assisting as interpeter for the Left Party's group leader in Stockholm, Ann-Margarethe Livh, who where in Somalia working for a democracy project and holding a guest lecture at a Somalian university. Livh was herself hit by the gunfire but didn't suffer any death threatening wounds and is currently reciving care at a hospital in Kenya.

This is all very tragic. RIP.   

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

I somehow first thought that was going to be a post about Sabaton and was prepared for writing a thorough defense on how they have nothing to do with neonazism, quite the opposite. But alas no mention of them so I'm good.  

As for Volbeat and Dominus, I have no idea as I can't recall ever listening to one of their songs. But I couldn't find anything that seemed to indicate them being in any way associated with anything controversial, except maybe bad music taste.

Then I'm not really sure what you're asking though?     

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

According to the numbers, the next mayor of Stockholm may be... Karin Wanngård (S). Never heard of her? I hardly have either. And while hits on the opposition nation-wide for being divided are overused, either the Social Democrats or the Greens and Left will have to flip-flop on the A100 Förbifart Stockholm highway. Bring the popcorn, folks.

She can't be a worse mayoral candidate than Carin Jämtin was at least.
 

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

For anyone more interested in Swedish local politics, here's some short info on the current state of the largest 12 municipalities.   

Stockholm City:
Mayor: Sten Nordin (M)
Governing coalition: M+Fp+C+Kd
2010 council results:

M: 34,4% (38), C: 4,0% (3), Fp: 10,0% (10), Kd: 3,5% (1) = 52 seats
S: 22,6% (25), V: 7,4% (8.), Mp: 13,9% (16) = 48 seats  


Gothenburg:
Mayor: Anneli Hulthén (S)
Governing coalition: S+Mp+V
2010 council results:

S: 29,4% (25), V: 7,1% (7), Mp: 9,9% (9) = 41 seats  
M: 25,5% (23), Fp: 8,4% (7), Kd: 3,8% (2), Sd: 4,5% (3), VägV* 5,3% (5) = 40 seats

*Road Choice, local party opposing road tolls in Gothenburg. 


Malmö:
Mayor: Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh* (S)
Governing coalition: S+Mp+V
2010 council results:

S: 34,9% (22), V: 5,2% (4), Mp: 7,5% (5) = 31 seats  
M: 27,4% (17), Fp: 6,4% (4), Sd: 10,4% (7), SPI** 2,8% (2) = 30 seats

*Recently replaced (in)famous long-time mayor Ilmar Reepalu.
** Swedish Pensioners Intrest Party


Uppsala:
Mayor: Fredrik Ahlstedt (M)
Governing coalition: M+Fp+C+Kd
2010 council results:

M: 28,2% (23), C: 7,0% (6), Fp: 9,8% (8.), Kd: 5,6% (4) = 41 seats
S: 24,5% (21), V: 6,7% (6), Mp: 12,1% (11), Sd: 3,3% (2)  = 40 seats  


Linköping:
Mayor: Paul Lindvall (M)
Governing coalition: M+Fp+C+Kd
2010 council results:

M: 30,2% (25), C: 6,6% (6), Fp: 8,6% (7), Kd: 4,9% (3) = 41 seats
S: 30,5% (24), V: 4,5% (3), Mp: 9,3% (8.), Sd: 3,7% (3)  = 38 seats


Västerås:
Mayor: Ulla Persson (S)
Governing coalition: S+Mp+V (minority rule)
2010 council results:

S: 35,1% (22), V: 5,0% (4), Mp: 6,1% (4) = 30 seats
M: 28,3% (17), C: 4,0% (2), Fp: 11,0% (7), Kd: 4,0% (2), Sd: 4,7% (3)  = 31 seats  


Örebro:
Mayor: Lena Baastad (S)
Governing coalition: S+Kd+C
2011 council results: (Note: held elections in 2011)

S: 41,1% (28),  C: 4,6% (2),  Kd: 6,8% (4) = 34 seats
M: 21,4% (14), Fp: 8,5% (5), V: 6,1% (4), Mp: 6,0% (4), Sd: 5,2% (4)  = 31 seats  


Norrköping:
Mayor: Lars Stjernkvist (S)
Governing coalition: S+Mp+V
2010 council results:

S: 36,6% (31), V: 5,2% (5), Mp: 7,5% (7) = 43 seats
M: 27,9% (24), C: 5,2% (4), Fp: 6,1% (6), Kd: 3,8% (4), Sd: 5,2% (4)  = 42 seats  


Helsingborg:
Mayor: Peter Danielsson (M)
Governing coalition: M+Fp+Kd (Minority rule)
2010 council results:

M: 33,4% (23), Fp: 7,4% (5), Kd: 3,0% (2) = 30 seats
S: 28,7% (20), V: 3,3% (1), Mp: 8,6% (6), Sd: 10,5% (8.)  = 35 seats

Jönköping:
Mayor: Mats Green (M)
Governing coalition: M+Kd+Fp+C
2010 council results:

M: 25,3% (21), C: 5,8% (5), Fp: 6,0% (5), Kd: 15,8% (13) = 44 seats
S: 31,5% (27), V: 4,9% (3), Mp: 5,3% (4), Sd: 4,6% (3)  = 37 seats


Red Umeå:
Mayor: Lennart Holmlund (S)
Governing coalition: S+V+RSE
2010 council results:

S: 38,2% (25), V: 11,1% (7), RSE:* 2,4% (1) = 33 seats
M: 18,3% (13), C: 6,3% (4), Fp: 8,3% (5), Kd: 4,7% (4), Mp: 8,1% (6) = 32 seats  

* Justice Party - The Socialists


Lund: (Home sweet home)
Mayor: Mats Helmfrid (M)
Governing coalition: M+Fp+C+Kd
2010 council results:

M: 28,1% (18), C: 5,4% (3), Fp: 13,4% (10), Kd: 2,9% (2) = 33 seats
S: 21,9% (15), V: 5,7% (4), Mp: 13,0% (9), Sd: 5,1% (3),  DV:* 2,2% (1) = 32 seats

*Democratic Left, local student party


Fascinating that the mayors are equally divided to 6 Moderates and 6 Social Democrats. 

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

She can't be a worse mayoral candidate than Carin Jämtin was at least.

We'll see about that...

I'm also fascinated that so many of the big cities have such small majorities - and by the Örebro coalition. Local politics is weird and wonderful.

Haha, well I said that Juholt couldn't be worse than Sahlin so... I'm sure everything can get worse.

Yeah local coalitions can be fascinating. As I understand it, the Greens and SAP really doesn't get along in Örebro and refuse to work together.
The most strange one would be Boden from 2002 to 2009 though, M+V+NS+Mp+Fp. You really have to hate Social Democratic power monopoly to  get that one to work for seven years.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

Västerbotten Health Service Referendum

Västerbotten County today held a regional referendum on their county health service.
The governing S+Mp coalition decided one and a half year ago to close down the health clinics and ambulance stations in the small inland towns of Dorothea and Åsele. The decision has been heavily criticized and created an uproar in the small towns affected.

The referendum was on weather to recall the decision.
The yes side naturally won by a landslide, but the County-wide turn-out was only 29%, far below the mark of 50% announced by the County council to make the referendum binding for them.    

YES - 88,5% - #53,305
NO - 7,3% - #4,422

Turn-out - 29,0% - #60,226/207,696

Turn-out varied a lot across the county, with it approaching general election numbers in Dorothea and Åsele (both above 70% in turn out), inland municipalities being in the middle numbers, while the two cities of Umeå and Skellefteå and their nearby communities had low turn-out.

TURN-OUT:
  

EDIT: Peter Olofsson (S), who is the county's leading politician has already announced that since turn-out was so low, the actual result isn't worth caring about and thus will not cause a change of policy.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

It's an S+Mp coalition which governs Västerbotten, V is in opposition and campaigned for the Yes side on the referendum.

Ah thank you.
I thought that at first, but then when I looked it up it said it was a S+V+Mp coalition. Then I know that source was incorrect.

We'll see what happens now. From what I read, Mp doesn't really like S writing the result off because of the low turn-out. This might spell problems for the coalition.