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CrabCake
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« Reply #850 on: October 15, 2017, 08:52:46 AM »

could the Liberals or Centre ever support (or join) a Social Democratic government?
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Gustaf
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« Reply #851 on: October 16, 2017, 03:23:36 PM »

could the Liberals or Centre ever support (or join) a Social Democratic government?

Yes. I mean, they both have historically. The Centre party supported the Social Democratic government 1994-1998, C and L ruled with S support 1982-1983, C ruled in government with S 1951-1957 and 1936-1939 and supported them 1932-1936.

Thing is, historically it always hurts a centre-right party to work with S. But the current C would probably rather do that then have anything to do with SD.
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The Lord Marbury
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« Reply #852 on: December 05, 2017, 11:08:57 AM »

www.scb.se/en/finding-statistics/statistics-by-subject-area/democracy/political-party-preferences/party-preference-survey-psu/pong/statistical-news/party-preference-survey-in-november-2017--election-today/

The SCB poll, the biggest of the year alongside their poll in May, is finally out and it seems to show that the Moderates made the right choice by switching out AKB for Kristersson. Some pretty good news for the Social Democrats as well, although the Greens are still doing horribly and have dropped below the threshold while the Liberals just got their worst showing in an SCB poll since 1999 and the Sweden Democrats are dropping significantly compared to the previous poll in May, with most of their losses going to the Moderates.

()=change since May
[]=change since the last election
<>=margin of error

Left: 7.0% (+0.7) [+1.3] <±0.5>
Social Democrats: 32.6% (+1.5) [+1.6] <±0.9>
Greens: 3.8% (-0.7) [-3.1] <±0.4>

Liberals: 4.2% (-0.8 ) [-1.2] <±0.4>
Centre: 9.5% (-1.8 ) [+3.4] <±0.6>
Moderates: 22.2% (+4.1) [-1.1] <±0.8>
Christian Democrats: 3.1% (-0.1) [-1.5] <±0.3>

Sweden Democrats: 14.8% (-3.6) [+1.9] <±0.7>

Others: 2.6% (+0.4) [-1.5] <±0.4>

Red-Greens: 43.4% (+1.5) [-0.2]
Red-Greens (above threshold): 39.6%
Alliance: 39.2% (+1.4) [-0.4]
Alliance (above threshold): 36.1%
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The Lord Marbury
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« Reply #853 on: January 21, 2019, 02:14:37 PM »
« Edited: January 24, 2019, 05:44:21 AM by The Lord Marbury »

The election is now over for sure and Sweden has a government that will (hopefully) last for the roughly three and a half years that remain until the next one, so with the election thread no longer needed I thought I'd revive this thread. Starting with posting the full cabinet list that Löfven announced in today's policy declaration.

Prime Minister's Office
Prime Minister: Stefan Löfven, S
-Leader of the Social Democrats, 2012-
-President of trade union IF Metall, 2006-2012

Minister for EU Affairs: Hans Dahlgren, S*
-State Secretary for Foreign Affairs in the Prime Minister's Office, 2014-2019
-UN Ambassador, 1997-2000
-Foreign policy advisor to Prime Ministers Olof Palme, Ingvar Carlsson and Göran Persson, 1982-1991, 1994-1997


Ministry of Justice
Minister for Justice and Migration: Morgan Johansson, S
-Minister for Justice and Home Affairs, 2017-2019
-Minister for Justice and Migration, 2014-2017
-Minister for Public Health, 2002-2006

Minister for Home Affairs: Mikael Damberg, S
-Minister for Enterprise and Innovations, 2014-2019
-Social Democratic parliamentary group leader, 2012-2014


Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Minister for Foreign Affairs: Margot Wallström, S
-UN Special Envoy on Sexual Violence in Conflict, 2010-2012
-EU-commissioner, 1999-2010
-Minister for Social Affairs, 1996-1998

Minister for International Development: Peter Eriksson, MP
-Minister for Housing and Digitalisation, 2016-2019
-MEP, 2014-2016
-Co-leader of the Greens, 2002-2011

Minister for Trade: Ann Linde, S
-Minister for EU Affairs and Trade, 2016-2019
-State Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, 2014-2016


Ministry of Defence
Minister for Defence: Peter Hultqvist, S
-Member of the Riksdag for Dalarna County, 2006-

Ministry of Social Affairs
Minister for Social Affairs: Lena Hallengren, S
-Minister for Children, the Elderly and Gender Equality, 2018-2019
-Member of the Riksdag for Kalmar County, 2006-
-Minister for Preschools, Adult Education and Youth, 2002-2006

Minister for Social Security: Annika Strandhäll, S
-Minister for Social Affairs, 2017-2018
-Minister for Social Security, 2014-2017
-President of trade union Vision, 2011-2014


Ministry of Finance
Minister for Finance: Magdalena Andersson, S
-Chief Director of the Swedish Tax Agency, 2009-2012
-State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, 2004-2006
-Director of Planning in the Prime Minister's Office, 1998-2004

Deputy Minister for Finance, Minister for Financial Markets and Housing: Per Bolund, MP
-Member of the Riksdag for Stockholm Municipality, 2011-
Minister for Civil Affairs: Ardalan Shekarabi, S
-Member of the Riksdag for Uppsala County, 2012-

Ministry of Education
Minister for Education: Anna Ekström, S
-Minister for Upper Secondary Schools and Adult Education, 2016-2019
-Director General of the National Agency for Education, 2011-2016
-President of the Swedish Confederation of Professional Associations, 2001-2011

Minister for Higher Education and Research: Matilda Ernkrans, S*
-Chair of the Riksdag's Education Committee, 2018-2019
-Member of the Riksdag for Örebro County, 2002-


Ministry of the Environment
Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for the Environment and Climate Change: Isabella Lövin, MP
-Co-leader of the Green Party, 2016-
-Minister for International Development, 2014-2019
-MEP, 2009-2014


Ministry of Enterprise
Minister for Enterprise: Ibrahim Baylan, S
-Minister for Policy Coordination and Energy, 2016-2019
-Minister for Energy, 2014-2016
-Minister for Schools, 2004-2006

Minister for Rural Affairs: Jennie Nilsson, S*
-Deputy Chair of the Enterprise Committee, 2018-2019
-Chair of the Enterprise Committee, 2014-2018
-Member of the Riksdag for Halland County, 2006-


Ministry of Culture
Minister for Culture and Democracy: Amanda Lind, MP*
-Party Secretary of the Green Party, 2016-2019
-Deputy Mayor of Härnösand Municipality, 2014-2016


Ministry of Employment
Minister for Employment: Ylva Johansson, S
-Minister for Welfare and Elderly Care, 2004-2009
-Minister for Schools, 1994-1998

Minister for Gender Equality: Åsa Lindhagen, MP*
-Deputy Mayor for Social Affairs in Stockholm Municipality, 2014-2018

Ministry of Infrastructure
Minister for Infrastructure: Tomas Eneroth, S
-Social Democratic parliamentary group leader, 2014-2017
-Member of the Riksdag for Kronoberg County, 1994-

Minister for Energy and Digitalisation: Anders Ygeman, S*
-Social Democratic parliamentary group leader, 2017-2019
-Minister for Home Affairs, 2014-2019
-Member of the Riksdag for Stockholm Municipality, 1995-


* = New cabinet member.

Considering that Löfven is 61 and could very well decide to step down as leader before the next election or will certainly do so after winning or losing that election, there are a few interesting names in this list. Magdalena Andersson is as ever the frontrunner if Löfven decides to step down while in the government, she has his trust and support and there are a lot of people who want to see a woman Prime Minister and she looks like the the strongest candidate at the moment. If the party loses the next election it could be a bit more open. Anders Ygeman has been mentioned as a future leader with increasing frequency. He comes from the leftwing faction of the party and got to focus on tough-on-crime issues as Home Minister last term, which brought him prominence but also tainted him somewhat when he was forced to resign after the scandals in the Transport Agency. Now he has a far more anonymous position which could make further advancement more difficult, while the new Home Minister is Mikael Damberg, who like Andersson comes from the party's right.

Damberg was mentioned as a likely successor before 2014 but kind of fell into obscurity while serving as Enterprise Minister. Perhaps he can use the Home Affairs portfolio to gain publicity in the same way as Ygeman did and thus put himself back into contention. Tomas Eneroth, Ylva Johansson, Ardalan Shekarabi and Anna Ekström could be a few of the dark horses in contention. Anna Ekström becoming leader would carry the fun benefit of making it slightly more difficult for the right to attack her, as she was appointed Director General of the Education Agency by a Liberal Minister for Education and was asked to join a rightwing government as Minister for Employment by Fredrik Reinfeldt back in 2006.
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The Lord Marbury
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« Reply #854 on: January 24, 2019, 05:02:20 PM »
« Edited: January 24, 2019, 06:06:15 PM by The Lord Marbury »

Ipsos has a poll out from the period when C & L announced their decisions to back Löfven, but the polling period started the day before the deal was released and three days before both C & L had made their final decisions, so there's still going to be some wait for a poll from after Löfvens reelection as PM.

I guess that the most interesting thing about this poll is that the Alliance is no longer being shown as a unified group. 'Tis truly the end of an era.

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« Reply #855 on: February 06, 2019, 03:29:10 PM »

Jan Björklund won't run for another term as L leader, meaning he will step down at their party congress in November. His announcement comes at the same day as a Novus poll shows L at 2.7%

SVT speculates about a number of names as possible replacements. In the wing, who opposed cooperation with the left wing, are MPs Johan Pehrson, Mats Persson and Gulan Avci as well as former Minister of Equality Nyamko Sabuni. In the pro-cooperation wing, parliamentary group leader Christer Nylander is mentioned along with Stockholm councillors  Anna Starbrink and Lotta Edholm. There are also dreams about EU Commissioner, Cecilia Malmström, but she has ruled it out repeatedly.
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« Reply #856 on: March 10, 2019, 03:09:12 AM »

KD 4th biggest party at 10.6%. With L under the threshold, there is a M-KD-SD majority.

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Omega21
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« Reply #857 on: March 10, 2019, 06:33:15 AM »

KD 4th biggest party at 10.6%. With L under the threshold, there is a M-KD-SD majority.



Is voting in Sweden private? I mean, I saw pictures of party lists being in the open, so everyone could see which party list you take.

I could have misunderstood, so that's why I'm asking.
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DavidB.
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« Reply #858 on: March 11, 2019, 09:33:57 AM »

KD 4th biggest party at 10.6%. With L under the threshold, there is a M-KD-SD majority.



Is voting in Sweden private? I mean, I saw pictures of party lists being in the open, so everyone could see which party list you take.

I could have misunderstood, so that's why I'm asking.
You take a ballot for every party and then cast only one, in private. This system is still criticized, though.
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Omega21
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« Reply #859 on: March 11, 2019, 10:27:02 AM »
« Edited: March 11, 2019, 10:30:18 AM by Omega21 »

KD 4th biggest party at 10.6%. With L under the threshold, there is a M-KD-SD majority.



Is voting in Sweden private? I mean, I saw pictures of party lists being in the open, so everyone could see which party list you take.

I could have misunderstood, so that's why I'm asking.
You take a ballot for every party and then cast only one, in private. This system is still criticized, though.

Edit:

Just read a bit more about it.

So basically, most people will take just one ballot, and if you take the SD ballot (and everything else along with it) people are likely to know you are voting SD, since I doubt a Socialist or Moderate would feel pressured to take all of the ballots, and would only take the one they need.

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Former President tack50
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« Reply #860 on: March 11, 2019, 11:18:19 AM »

KD 4th biggest party at 10.6%. With L under the threshold, there is a M-KD-SD majority.



Is voting in Sweden private? I mean, I saw pictures of party lists being in the open, so everyone could see which party list you take.

I could have misunderstood, so that's why I'm asking.
You take a ballot for every party and then cast only one, in private. This system is still criticized, though.

Edit:

Just read a bit more about it.

So basically, most people will take just one ballot, and if you take the SD ballot (and everything else along with it) people are likely to know you are voting SD, since I doubt a Socialist or Moderate would feel pressured to take all of the ballots, and would only take the one they need.



Not sure how it works in Sweden, but here we use a similar system although depending on the polling place, the ballots will be either inside a cabin or out in the open (there doesn't seem to be an standard for this)

However, many parties (especially the large ones) send ballots to each voter. So if you plan on voting for the large parties you can go directly to the ballot box and put your vote there.

Not sure if Swedish parties send ballots home though.
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« Reply #861 on: March 21, 2019, 01:25:29 PM »

Christian Democrats open for negotiations with Sweden Democrats

As the first party in the Swedish parliament, the Christian Democrats are now opening for negotiations with Sweden Democrats in policy issues. KD leader Ebba Busch Thor wrote on Facebook about her party's cooperation with other parties: "With the Moderates, we have an active and close cooperation. With the Centre Party and the Liberals, we hope to govern in the future, either in a government or a budget cooperation. With the Social Democrats, Sweden Democrats, the Left Party and the Green Party, we are ready to discuss separate policy issues whenever it is meaningful to do so". Previously, all parties have shunned negotiations with Sweden Democrats in all negotiations. Will be interesting to see whether there is movement in the Moderates as well. They could be pressured if the Christian Democrats continue rising in polls.

https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/1nkW5l/kds-nya-linje-oppnar-for-att-forhandla-med-sd
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Gustaf
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« Reply #862 on: March 26, 2019, 09:18:13 AM »

KD 4th biggest party at 10.6%. With L under the threshold, there is a M-KD-SD majority.



Is voting in Sweden private? I mean, I saw pictures of party lists being in the open, so everyone could see which party list you take.

I could have misunderstood, so that's why I'm asking.
You take a ballot for every party and then cast only one, in private. This system is still criticized, though.

Edit:

Just read a bit more about it.

So basically, most people will take just one ballot, and if you take the SD ballot (and everything else along with it) people are likely to know you are voting SD, since I doubt a Socialist or Moderate would feel pressured to take all of the ballots, and would only take the one they need.



Not sure how it works in Sweden, but here we use a similar system although depending on the polling place, the ballots will be either inside a cabin or out in the open (there doesn't seem to be an standard for this)

However, many parties (especially the large ones) send ballots to each voter. So if you plan on voting for the large parties you can go directly to the ballot box and put your vote there.

Not sure if Swedish parties send ballots home though.

They are out in the open, but yes parties usually send you ballots by mail as well. It isn't principally ideal but I don't Think the effect is that big to be honest.
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Clarko95 📚💰📈
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« Reply #863 on: February 23, 2021, 05:23:14 PM »

Damn, did we just abandon this entire megathread? Okay, well, my time to shine then and make up for my total abandonment of Italian politics since March 15th, 2018.

Which party do you trust on the following issues?



Healthcare - SAP
Law & Order - Moderates
Immigration & Integration - SD
Education - SAP
Elder Care - SAP

In terms of opinion polling for 2022, we seem to have gone back mostly to our pre-pandemic numbers, with the SAP polling on average around 27%, just a smidge below their 2018 numbers (28%), but the big change is that the Moderates are seeing a sustained uptick from their 2018 result of less than 20% now up to around 23% and SD stuck around 20%.

The Left Party has ticked up from 8% in 2018 to 10% now, Centre is stuck at 8%, KD has come down from their random high of 12% in mid-2019 back to just 5%, and the Greens are struggling around the 4% threshold.

The big loser is the Liberals, who are polling consistently well below the 4% threshold. Their comeback attempt since 2019 by moving to the right has flopped, and they continue to be cannibalized by Centre, the Moderates, and the SAP (a little bit). I think 2022 might just be the deathblow for them at the national level; they just serve no purpose now that Centre and M have eaten into much of their liberal base and the left-liberal wing has defected to the SAP.
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« Reply #864 on: February 23, 2021, 06:25:26 PM »

I have to say that as of this time, my expectation for 2022 is that a conservative/dark blue government is formed with M+KD in government and SD abstaining to let them through. The Liberals are basically dead, but if they somehow manager to survive, they probably would join this government since their rightward turn in 2019. Meanwhile it looks like Centre might be permanently alienated from a potential Alliance reformation, but they're still too liberal to truly join the Red-Greens. We might enter a world with a Red-Green bloc + Centre grudgingly going along in exchange for major concessions against a conservative bloc.

I have to give credit to the Moderates and Ulf Kristersson for cleaning up their act over the past year and finding their footing. They've been putting out quite a lot of solid ideas about how to deal with the pandemic, crime, immigration, and the labor market, and Kristersson himself has improved in focusing on the issues instead of just whining about the Social Democrats and his annoying "socialism never works" spiel that no one cares about.

They also scored a win with the current electricity shortage playing into their pro-nuclear stance, and have built upon it with proposals for big spending on upgrading the grid, more electric car charging stations, and loosening of some restrictions on mining for metals and minerals relevant for electricity production.

The measures they proposed for COVID-19 including mandatory facemasks in public transport, enforceable by fines, as well as stronger laws allowing the closure of business such as ski resorts.

Regarding welfare-to-work:
  • Create the equivalent of a double earned income tax deduction on employment for those who have been on government assistance for a long time
  • Eliminate the ability to "stack" government grants and aid to prevent dependency
  • Reduce taxes on the lowest income bracket

Details have not yet been determined.

I previously posted about their new work visa regulations here:

The Moderate Party introduced a labor immigration proposal for non-EU workers:

  • only granting a work permit if the agreed upon salary exceeds the average monthly wage for all of Sweden (currently 31,000 SEK per month, or approximately $3800 per month).
  • Implementing a grant ceiling for those on work permits
  • Remove the possibility that those who submit an asylum application and are rejected can then apply for a work visa, citing the time they've already lived in Sweden
  • Deny work permits for those applying for "personal assistant" jobs, since this category is abused and associated with crime and trafficking
  • New maintenance requirements for those who wish to bring their families along with them
  • New requirement for employers to submit a copy of an employment contracts along with work permit applications to help ensure they stick to legitimate working conditions

For the most part I don't really have any problems with these proposals, other than two very specific things:

1. The proposed minimum salary of 31,000 SEK is a bit high. I agree that the current salary requirement of 13,000 SEK / month is absurdly low, but a more reasonable minimum would be closer to 25,000 per month or so. Right now a lot of jobs that have shortages (especially healthcare and elderly care) pay between 25,000 and 30,000 SEK, so the situation in these areas would be made even worse if there is no mitigating proposal to raise wages in this sector. Furthermore, 25,000 SEK per month is not actually a bad salary, and outside of major cities, that's actually quite a solid middle class salary for one person. The 31,000 per month suggestion is too "one size fits all", which makes no sense given the extreme cost of living differences between the big cities and the rest of the country. Furthermore, the rural regions are the places where the worker shortages are most extreme and also have larger budget constraints compared to wealthier cities.

2. The maintenance requirement for families is weirdly specific and rigid. I have no qualms with the salary requirements for families, but the proposal also mandates what kind of living space you need to have. I'm not really sure how this is going to actually be enforced, unless Sweden starts sending police to people's homes to check in on them, which is absurd and a huge waste of time and resources. It reminds me of the drug testing of welfare recipients here in the U.S. that's part of being "tough on deadbeats" that ends up costing far more money than it saves.

The Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) and Federation of Business Owners (Företagarna) are both very positive towards these proposals, with LO suggesting issuing permits based upon a limited list of career categories to prevent saturation of lower-skilled, lower-paying jobs, while Företagarna criticized the proposed "talent visa" as being a useless tourist visa since applicants can't start working on it and the requirement for a masters degree is too restrictive, and says that professional experience and other qualitative characteristics should be taken into account. They also said the 31,000 SEK per month salary minimum was too high, given that it's equivalent to a starting salary in Stockholm for someone with a masters degree.

The Work Permit Holders Association welcomed the proposals, but also criticized the maintenance requirements regarding housing as being needlessly blunt, and said the proposals to stop the deportation of talented workers over minor administrative errors were too vague and not good enough. They also lamented the lack of any proposal to deal with work permit holders who lost their jobs due to COVID-19, lack of clarification regarding how probationary periods are treated, and the lack of anything to improve the situation with the Migration Agency, which is known for being bureaucratic, arbitrary, punitive, slow-moving, and generally just difficult to deal with all around.
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« Reply #865 on: February 23, 2021, 06:27:18 PM »

What caused Amineh Kakabaveh to leave the party?
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« Reply #866 on: February 23, 2021, 06:28:14 PM »

What caused Amineh Kakabaveh to leave the party?

Felt the party was not taking honor killing legislation seriously enough:

http://proletaren.se/artikel/amineh-kakabaveh-vansterpartiet-har-anpassat-sig-till-islamister

Quote
Amineh Kakabaveh has long been a strong voice in the debate on honor killings. As such, she came on a collision course with the (v) leadership who want to tone down the work against honor-related violence. Kakabaveh left the party at the end of August last year.

"The Left Party has adapted to the Islamists who believe that all criticism of their way of life and work is an expression of racism and colonialism", says Amineh Kakabaveh, now independent socialist member of parliament.

If you use the Google Translate Chrome extension, you can read a more detailed history of her issues with the Left Party and Islamism here: https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/samhalle/a/MRqvzm/vansterpartiet-utesluter-amineh-kakabaveh
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« Reply #867 on: February 23, 2021, 06:47:51 PM »

I’m hearing that recently the Left Party has been making moves to moderate itself in both rhetoric and actions lately for electoral gain; mainly on the issues of NATO membership and/or collaboration and the EU. What policy shifts have they done here among other planks during and since the last election?

Are the Moderates continuing to view a coalition government with the Swedish Democrats as untenable or is that shifting?
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« Reply #868 on: February 23, 2021, 07:04:20 PM »

I’m hearing that recently the Left Party has been making moves to moderate itself in both rhetoric and actions lately for electoral gain; mainly on the issues of NATO membership and/or collaboration and the EU. What policy shifts have they done here among other planks during and since the last election?

Gonna be quite honest and say that I don't really follow Vänsterpartiet, I just follow the SocDems (of which I am a paying member), Moderates, and Centre for the most part. But I think they have actually toned down some of their hard-left positions on the EU, yes, however I am not sure about any substantive changes regarding NATO other than not whining about imperialism in the Balkans anymore or whatever.

Quote
Are the Moderates continuing to view a coalition government with the Swedish Democrats as untenable or is that shifting?

They still say they refuse to go into a coalition government with them, but say they will "discuss" and "collaborate" on substantive issues where they agree on, so it's a de facto conservative coalition. SD will almost certainly vote to abstain if M+KD+SD have a majority between them, and in 2018 I believe that Jimmie Åkesson (SD party leader) said they would support an Alliance government since they said that the Moderates' immigration proposals were an "acceptable minimum".
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« Reply #869 on: February 28, 2021, 05:11:40 AM »

It lives! The Big Bad Swedish Thread lives! Surprise

The big loser is the Liberals, who are polling consistently well below the 4% threshold. Their comeback attempt since 2019 by moving to the right has flopped, and they continue to be cannibalized by Centre, the Moderates, and the SAP (a little bit). I think 2022 might just be the deathblow for them at the national level; they just serve no purpose now that Centre and M have eaten into much of their liberal base and the left-liberal wing has defected to the SAP.

It really is strange to me how determined they seem to be to kill themselves off as a political party. I do think they could be successful at saving themselves if they decided on a political lane and stuck with it. But their current shtick, continuing to stay part of the January agreement while at the same time doing everything they can to undermine it, combined with the party leader being constantly undermined by members of her own party in her efforts to create a new political direction and constantly being forced to back-peddle, is not appealing to anyone. 

In recent elections parties who have struggled below 4% have had a tendency to bounce back close to the election though. The Centre Party was considered doomed before the 2014 election, but bounced back just in time and the Christian Democrats had been given their last rites in spring 2018 until Ebba Busch became an election success and gave the party their best results in years. So, it's not over for the Liberals, but they really need to get their sh**t together.

I have to give credit to the Moderates and Ulf Kristersson for cleaning up their act over the past year and finding their footing. They've been putting out quite a lot of solid ideas about how to deal with the pandemic, crime, immigration, and the labor market, and Kristersson himself has improved in focusing on the issues instead of just whining about the Social Democrats and his annoying "socialism never works" spiel that no one cares about.

I'm not sure I fully agree with you about them cleaning up their act and putting out solid policy proposals.  Their "new" policies are mostly rehashed old Moderate policies in a new package, or in the case of their proposal to limit immigration working permits to people with higher salaries a rehashed old Social Democratic policy (as well as a copy-cat of the Tories in Britain).

Though I completely agree about the electricity shortage situation being a big win for them.

Otherwise I think their growing support is more based on everyone else currently being God awful than on the Moderates being stronger than before.

The Social Democrats are out of steam, their government is unpopular and they don't have any major policy victories to speak of for their entire period back in power. With their handling of Covid being at best described as dithering and their top-politicians taking a page out of Domenic Cummings book and breaking their own restrictions, their numbers falling back down to pre-pandemic levels is expected. And their mantra of "The right is turning into Orban/Trump/Putin" is as tired and over-repeated as ""socialism never works" is.

The Sweden Democrats have been invisible now that the number one issue of the day isn't immigration and crime. The leader of the Christian Democrats decided she'd rather have a public legal battle where she tries to steal an old fragile man's house than to do politics. The Liberals awfulness we've already discussed. As for my own party I haven't at all been impressed by us at the national level recently and with the Federley scandal, our fight with the Labour unions and internal strife over high-spped rail, I'm both surprised and thankful that our poll-numbers have been as stable as they've been.

It's not hard for Kristersson to be seen as the sensible choice.   

What caused Amineh Kakabaveh to leave the party?

She didn't leave the party. She was expelled by the party leadership on some rather bogus charges that she wasn't cooperating with rest of the party. But really the real reason was that she criticized the party line on Islamic extremism and negative patriarchal, misogynistic and homophobic issues in some Conservative immigrant communities, which really ruffled some feathers among a large part of the party's woke membership. 

I’m hearing that recently the Left Party has been making moves to moderate itself in both rhetoric and actions lately for electoral gain; mainly on the issues of NATO membership and/or collaboration and the EU. What policy shifts have they done here among other planks during and since the last election?

They have certainly moderated their rhetoric when it comes to EU membership. While official party policy is still that Sweden should leave the EU, their oppositions had been really toned down, even muted, after Brexit.

It's simply a question about them not wanting to be seen as being on the same side as the Sweden Democrats, Boris Johnson and other right-wingers. And being anti-EU is not a winning political stance with the well-educated middle-class youth where Socialism is the hot new trend.

They haven't toned down their criticism of NATO however, they're as aggressively opposed as ever.   
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Clarko95 📚💰📈
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« Reply #870 on: March 03, 2021, 01:45:39 PM »
« Edited: March 03, 2021, 01:49:00 PM by Clarko95 »

Knife attack reported in Vetlanda, south-central Sweden, near Jonköping. 8 people injured, suspect taken into custody after being shot by police.
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njwes
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« Reply #871 on: March 03, 2021, 04:14:11 PM »

Knife attack reported in Vetlanda, south-central Sweden, near Jonköping. 8 people injured, suspect taken into custody after being shot by police.

What about the question we all want to know the answer to?  Angel
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Clarko95 📚💰📈
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« Reply #872 on: March 04, 2021, 03:08:53 AM »

Knife attack reported in Vetlanda, south-central Sweden, near Jonköping. 8 people injured, suspect taken into custody after being shot by police.

What about the question we all want to know the answer to?  Angel

Police haven't given many details. Attacker previously known for minor crimes, and while the police are not calling it a terrorist attack, they say there are details that indicate a possible terrorist motive. They also revised the number wounded to 7 injured.
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Clarko95 📚💰📈
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« Reply #873 on: March 04, 2021, 01:37:33 PM »

Knife attack reported in Vetlanda, south-central Sweden, near Jonköping. 8 people injured, suspect taken into custody after being shot by police.

What about the question we all want to know the answer to?  Angel

Police haven't given many details. Attacker previously known for minor crimes, and while the police are not calling it a terrorist attack, they say there are details that indicate a possible terrorist motive. They also revised the number wounded to 7 injured.

They have also revised this back to just "attempted murder" investigation and have dropped the "possible terrorist motive" angle for now. Given the attacker's previous criminal record, this could be simply snapping and going on a rampage, mental illness, resentment, etc., let's see what they say.
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Omega21
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« Reply #874 on: March 04, 2021, 02:06:07 PM »

Knife attack reported in Vetlanda, south-central Sweden, near Jonköping. 8 people injured, suspect taken into custody after being shot by police.

What about the question we all want to know the answer to?  Angel

More info:

The suspect is of Afghan nationality and was waiting for an answer on his residence permit, according to the Swedish Migration Board.

As Clarko said, no word yet if it's terrorism or not.

In English

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2021-03-04/three-have-life-threatening-wounds-after-sweden-ax-attack
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