The Big Bad Swedish Politics & News Thread

[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.   

[Franknburger]

Sorry in advance if I should be high-jacking this thread, but since some regular posters here are as well interested in music, I thought it may be adequate to re-post here a contribution to a music thread that some may have overlooked- a quite frightening Nordic network with extensions into Germany & the UK and beyond (Hungary, Poland):

Death to Volbeat, return Dominus!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0chvCFhdzc

I have serious problems with that kind of music. Why? Because it sounds pretty similar to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KY2xmxzIpc
(scroll down a bit to see the first comment)

Here is a bit of background how the scene on the other side of the Oresund was organised at the time the Dominus song was recorded. [And, no, there is no indication that any Dominus or Volbeat member was ever an active part of the scene, but the musical relation is quite obvious]

Want an idea how it sounds in German? You will have to stand 1 minute of a german journalist talking, but after that you will get the idea pretty quickly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALjpQle89YY

More of that here (click on the clips in the lower right corner)

Finally, a Swedish and a German list of bands to treat with care.

[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?     

[Tayya]

In addition to the Riksdag elections, September 2014 will also see County Council and municipal elections. Two days ago, SVT ABC (Stockholm-Uppsala local news) reported on some poll by Novus commissioned by LO, the Swedish Trade Union Confederation, that would show the opposition leading in Stockholm Municipality. The numbers were released yesterday and does indeed show that:

Moderate 32.5% (-1.9%)
Liberal 6.5% (-3.5%)
Centre 2.1% (-1.9%)
Christian Democrat 2.0 (-1.5%)

Social Democrat 24.2% (+1.6%)
Green 15.0% (+1.1%)
Left 10.6% (+3.2%)

Sweden Democrat 3.4% (+0.8%)
Others 3.6% (+2.0%)

Note that Stockholm Municipality is divided into six multi-member constituencies that elect city council members separately without a threshold. The results are therefore not proportional with the citywide numbers, especially hurting the smallest parties. Presuming a citywide swing, no "other" parties big enough to jockey for a seat (they'd have to get around 3-4% in one constituency), and implementing some quickly calculated population projections, the seat numbers become:

Moderate 37 (-1)
Liberal 8 (-2)
Centre 0 (-3)
Christian Democrat 0 (-1)

Social Democrat 26 (+1)
Green 16 (-)
Left 11 (+3)

Sweden Democrat 3 (+3)

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.

[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. 

[Tayya]

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.

[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.

[The Lord Marbury]

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

[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.

[The Lord Marbury]

Fredrik Reinfeldt and Stefan Löfven are facing off for the first time ever in a one-on-one debate in tonight's "Aktuellt" on SVT 2. It's been a tradition in Swedish politics that the PM and the leader of the opposition debate from time to time, usually after the opposition has presented its shadow budget, but Reinfeldt broke that tradition after the 2010 election, claiming it's because the Red-Greens fell apart, and there hasn't been a one-on-one debate between him and either Juholt or Löfven since, until tonight that is. He probably realized that refusing to debate with your big opponent wouldn't be the best strategy during the coming campaign, though interestingly he hasn't been willing to wait until the Social Democrats presented their shadow budget, putting him at a slight advantage heading into the whole thing.

Any other Swedes (or others) who plan to watch it?

[Tayya]

No. The party people supported beforehand are usually declared the winners.

Debates suck.

[Gustaf]

So, who voted in the church election?

[Tayya]

I did, and convinced my parents to do so too.

[The Lord Marbury]

I did as well. It'd be pretty stupid for someone who's been nominated by his party to not vote.

[The Lord Marbury]

Coinciding with the opening of the Riksdag today, Reinfeldt has made a minor reshuffle of his cabinet. International Development minister Gunilla Carlsson, subject to a great deal of internal department criticism for her leadership style, is leaving the government and will be replaced by the current Employment minister Hillevi Engström who in turn will be replaced by MP and employment committee chairman Elisabeth Svantesson. Svantesson has also been the leader of the Riksdag's christian caucus, is a former member of the strict christian organization Livets Ord and has previously worked for the anti-choice organization "Yes to Life".

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

Free church member, socially conservative, why is this woman not a member of the Christian Democrats?

Anyway, I think one of the reasons for Reinfeldt to move Engström is to get her out of the controversial Employment Ministry and into something more harmless, and give her foreign policy experience is because he recognizes her as a potential successor.

So, who voted in the church election?

I did, and as any sane person who isn't a party hack I voted for POSK (Politically Unaffiliated in the Swedish Church)

I can only hope that in the near future we'll have a church that is removed from politics.

[The Lord Marbury]

So the party leaders' debate was tonight and IMO, Jonas Sjöstedt was by far the strongest preformer in this debate, coming with the most convincing arguments. Löfven is getting slightly better with each debate but still he's not quite up to snuff. Probably that's as a result of originally coming from a union where the main goal is to reach a consensus, not to highlight differences like in electoral politics. For Reinfeldt I mainly think that his attitude is his biggest problem. He really came off as a bit of an arrogant bully a lot of the times, and that usually doesn't win you a lot of votes out there.

All in all, I'm pretty disappointed of how little coverage was given to the infrastructure needs of less populated areas such as northern Sweden. It's good and well to talk about improving the rail traffic between Stockholm and Gothenburg, but when almost all rail traffic ends in Umeå you have a situation which puts the northern counties at a indisputable disadvantage to the rest of Sweden, and hold us back from growing our economy as well as our population. Gah! Build the goddamn North Bothnia Line already!

[Gustaf]

Löfven is good when he's scripted but he's not a good debater. Romson says decent things but she lacks presence. Sjöstedt is pretty good.

I felt Åkesson was put in an advantageous position and was allowed to act as the common sense voice for the people. The established parties strategy and attitude when it comes to SD really continues to baffle me completely.

On the right, I thought Björklund did well and Hägglund was quite good too. Reinfeldt was a bit uneven, but still decent. Lööf, well...at least she did better than I expected.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

I didn't watch the debate... you don't really have to, you only need to watch this and you know exactly what happened.

Gah! Build the goddamn North Bothnia Line already!

Yes if they could spend several billions and 20 years to dig a God damn tunnel no one needed through a hill they could at least build a railroad that we actually need.

Lööf, well...at least she did better than I expected.

I can assure you, no leader exceeds expectations quite so much as my party's leader.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

Sweden was today hit by some of the most shocking and major political news these last three years.

Finance Minister Anders Borg has gotten rid of his iconic pony tail.






All of Sweden is talking about this. (I'm not kidding, all of Sweden actually is talking about this)

[The Lord Marbury]

New approval numbers for the party leaders are out today, and it looks as if Löfven has finally managed to bridge the previously large approval gap between him and Reinfeldt.

Aftonbladet/SIFO:
Fredrik Reinfeldt (Moderate) 56% (-7)
Stefan Löfven (Social Democrat) 55% (+9)
Gustav Fridolin (Green) 49% (+9)
Åsa Romson (Green) 29% (+7)
Jonas Sjöstedt (Left) 29% (+8)
Jan Björklund (Liberal) 28% (-4)
Göran Hägglund (Christian Democrat) 27% (-1)
Annie Lööf (Centre) 19% (+3)
Jimmie Åkesson (Sweden Democrat) 10% (-3)

[The Lord Marbury]

Since the election is actually over now and the election thread is done now, I thought we might as well restart this thread to cover the day-to-day political stuff from now on.

----------------------

The Riksdag held its party leaders debate today and it's also the last debate Fredrik Reinfeldt will participate in. He's actually not done as a party leader until March when his successor will be elected but there's another debate in January so it's a bit unclear who will stand in for him then. The Social Democrats had party group leader Mikael Damberg step in for Löfven in the past 2 years when he wasn't in the Riksdag, but the Moderates' party group leader Anna Kinberg Batra is considered to be one of the strongest contenders for the party leadership so having her take Reinfeldt's place and debate Löfven in January could cause a bit of a stir.

Due to this being his last debate the other party leaders also handed over goodbye gifts to Reinfeldt. The various gifts handed over were:

*Tickets to "Life is a Schlager" by Jonas Gardell, a melodifestivalen/eurovision-centric musical was given to the former PM by his successor Stefan Löfven and the Social Democratic Party. A fitting present considering the ex-PMs enjoyment of musicals and his generally awful taste in music.+

+Exhibit A: The Moderates' official campaign song from this year's election.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q60yS3rmPwU

*A certificate for a sum of money given to aid organization UNHCR was presented by Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson. As if to say that "We are totally nice people too, and we give money to charities, and this totally changes the impression people have of us due to our inhumane immigration policies, right?"

*Deputy PM Åsa Romson presented Reinfeldt with a illustraded book about Swedish national parks and a bouqet of flowers. A typical Green Party gift.

*Annie Lööf gave her former boss a new pot for his kitchen and ingredients for a sausage stew.

*Left Party leader Jonas Sjöstedt gave Reinfeldt a copy of the book "The Reinfeldt Effect" which analyzes the success of the 'New Moderates' and the decline of the Social Democrats. It was also written by the Left Party's current party secretary Aron Etzler.

*The probably soon to be replaced Liberal leader Jan Björklund gave him a Nespresso™ coffee machine and a t-shirt which says "Worlds best friend".

*Christian Democrat leader Göran Hägglund gave him a tool belt following some sort of contrived monologue relating to one of the Alliance's slogan in the past election: "Now we build Sweden".

----

Now the government will continue its budget negotiations with the Left Party and they've already cleared the biggest hurdle by reaching an agreement on profits in the welfare sector which satisfied the Left Party and greatly angered the right. A committee will look at the issue for the next two years and the government will then present legislation to limit profits in 2016. The proposal actually goes much further than what the Social Democrats campaigned on in the election, but that was to be expected considering the harsh demands the Left made. If it will pass the Riksdag in a few years when it comes up for a vote is a different issue, as the Alliance will certainly not vote for it judging from what it looks like now, while the Sweden Democrats is a bit of an uncertainty. Though if it's voted down I guess all the leftwing parties can attack the right+Sweden Democrats for voting in favor of companies being able to take out profits from taxpayer funded welfare services in the next election, so that's something I suppose...

[The Lord Marbury]

Former Infrastructure Minister Catharina Elmsäter-Svärd said yesterday that she is not interested in succeeding Fredrik Reinfeldt as leader of the Moderates. Elmsäter-Svärd has been considered to be one of the top candidates for the job, along with fmr. Social Security Minister Ulf Kristersson and party education spokesperson Tomas Tobé but both of them have said no to the party leadership as well. Now Anna Kinberg Batra, party group leader and shadow finance minister following Anders Borg's hasty exit seems to be the only top candidate left who hasn't said no. But of course the Moderate party culture is very much similar to that of the Social Democrats in that it's seen as unproper to actually publically say that you're a candidate for the leadership, so Kinberg Batra hasn't exactly said much of anything about her intentions.

Kinberg Batra is certainly considered the "establishment candidate" and Fredrik Reinfeldt's own chosen successor. She has been party group leader in the Riksdag since 2010 and chair/vice chair in the Riksdag's financial affairs committee but doesn't have any cabinet level experience. She is probably best known among the Swedish public for saying "Stockholmers are smarter than hicks" as a joke during the 1998 election. This and her somewhat stiff upper class and uncharismatic style personally makes me think she will have a harder time connecting with the electorate than Elmsäter-Svärd would have. But she may still have to fight her way to the leadership because there are still a great deal of Moderate grassroots out there, especially on the county and municipal level who have been critical of the top-down way Fredrik Reinfeldt has had of running the party and would like to see a change in direction which Anna Kinberg Batra doesn't provide. An unexpected candidate could certainly come out of the woodwork with the support of these forces, or one of the previous no's could turn into a yes as we've seen happen before.