The Big Bad Swedish Politics & News Thread

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

Randomly jumping in here with two questions:

1.) Why is Stockholm a stronghold of the center-right?


2.) When I was visiting Vadstena, Odeshog, and Urnatur in May, I met two local green politicians. How strong is the Green Party in Sweden? Is it common for them to be in rural areas and small towns?

Also, we had a talk with the man who owns the treehouse hotel at Urnatur (he's one of the politicians we met) and told us he resented many Greens from the city because they believe that people should all live in cities, while he advocates that people live in the country. How strong is this divide in the Swedish Green Party?


Also, why the f*** do you people not export Kina Wafers??? They are now my favorite chocolate and they're not available in the U.S.

That is just wrong on so many levels.

[Gustaf]

Randomly jumping in here with two questions:

1.) Why is Stockholm a stronghold of the center-right?


2.) When I was visiting Vadstena, Odeshog, and Urnatur in May, I met two local green politicians. How strong is the Green Party in Sweden? Is it common for them to be in rural areas and small towns?

Also, we had a talk with the man who owns the treehouse hotel at Urnatur (he's one of the politicians we met) and told us he resented many Greens from the city because they believe that people should all live in cities, while he advocates that people live in the country. How strong is this divide in the Swedish Green Party?


Also, why the f*** do you people not export Kina Wafers??? They are now my favorite chocolate and they're not available in the U.S.

That is just wrong on so many levels.

1. Apart from recently with the SD, Swedish politics has a strong consensus on social issues and is divided mostly alongside economic lines. City people are rich. Imagine if New York was voting solely on economics and rural Kentucky was doing the same.

2. The Green party mostly has strength in cities and university areas but they exist elsewhere too. A former party leader made them biggest party in rural northern Kalix. The Green party generally does badly in rural areas for the reason you cited so I wouldn't call it a strong divide within the party.

The Kina wafers are under fire for racism, I believe, so that may not help.

[Gustaf]

Also, two more polls came out yesterday which basically confirm this result. The average of the 3 have SD narrowly behind SAP and narrowly ahead of M.

[Famous Mortimer]

Randomly jumping in here with two questions:

1.) Why is Stockholm a stronghold of the center-right?


2.) When I was visiting Vadstena, Odeshog, and Urnatur in May, I met two local green politicians. How strong is the Green Party in Sweden? Is it common for them to be in rural areas and small towns?

Also, we had a talk with the man who owns the treehouse hotel at Urnatur (he's one of the politicians we met) and told us he resented many Greens from the city because they believe that people should all live in cities, while he advocates that people live in the country. How strong is this divide in the Swedish Green Party?


Also, why the f*** do you people not export Kina Wafers??? They are now my favorite chocolate and they're not available in the U.S.

That is just wrong on so many levels.

1. Apart from recently with the SD, Swedish politics has a strong consensus on social issues and is divided mostly alongside economic lines. City people are rich. Imagine if New York was voting solely on economics and rural Kentucky was doing the same.

2. The Green party mostly has strength in cities and university areas but they exist elsewhere too. A former party leader made them biggest party in rural northern Kalix. The Green party generally does badly in rural areas for the reason you cited so I wouldn't call it a strong divide within the party.

The Kina wafers are under fire for racism, I believe, so that may not help.

I get what you're saying but New York isn't the best example since it's actually about 60% poor minorities and even among the Whites, a good chunk are either poor White ethnics living way out in the middle of nowhere in far west Brooklyn or hipsters making $10 an hour but getting by only because they don't have kids.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

Randomly jumping in here with two questions:

1.) Why is Stockholm a stronghold of the center-right?


2.) When I was visiting Vadstena, Odeshog, and Urnatur in May, I met two local green politicians. How strong is the Green Party in Sweden? Is it common for them to be in rural areas and small towns?

Also, we had a talk with the man who owns the treehouse hotel at Urnatur (he's one of the politicians we met) and told us he resented many Greens from the city because they believe that people should all live in cities, while he advocates that people live in the country. How strong is this divide in the Swedish Green Party?


Also, why the f*** do you people not export Kina Wafers??? They are now my favorite chocolate and they're not available in the U.S.

That is just wrong on so many levels.

1. Apart from recently with the SD, Swedish politics has a strong consensus on social issues and is divided mostly alongside economic lines. City people are rich. Imagine if New York was voting solely on economics and rural Kentucky was doing the same.

2. The Green party mostly has strength in cities and university areas but they exist elsewhere too. A former party leader made them biggest party in rural northern Kalix. The Green party generally does badly in rural areas for the reason you cited so I wouldn't call it a strong divide within the party.

The Kina wafers are under fire for racism, I believe, so that may not help.

I get what you're saying but New York isn't the best example since it's actually about 60% poor minorities and even among the Whites, a good chunk are either poor White ethnics living way out in the middle of nowhere in far west Brooklyn or hipsters making $10 an hour but getting by only because they don't have kids.

Gustaf is of course talking about Manhattan, which to us foreigners really is the only "real" part of New York.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

A new poll from Novus arrived today:

V: 7,3%
S: 25,1%
Mp: 6,7%

C: 6,7%
Fp: 5,2%
Kd: 3,3%
M: 23,3%

SD: 19,4%

[politicus]

A new poll from Novus arrived today:

V: 7,3%
S: 25,1%
Mp: 6,7%

C: 6,7%
Fp: 5,2%
Kd: 3,3%
M: 23,3%

SD: 19,4%

Hmmm. Was the SD surge a temporary thing connected to a special event/news story? Or do you think this is an outlier?

[DavidB.]

A new poll from Novus arrived today:

V: 7,3%
S: 25,1%
Mp: 6,7%

C: 6,7%
Fp: 5,2%
Kd: 3,3%
M: 23,3%

SD: 19,4%

Hmmm. Was the SD surge a temporary thing connected to a special event/news story? Or do you think this is an outlier?

The respondents have been polled from August 3 until August 23, a much wider time span than most other Swedish polls. That makes it harder to compare this poll to polls that have been taken in, for instance, four or five days.

19,4% is certainly somewhat lower than SD's average score in August, but I wouldn't call it a real outlier either. 20-23% seem to be "average". The 25,2% "omg SD in first place" poll seemed more like an outlier.

[politicus]

A new poll from Novus arrived today:

V: 7,3%
S: 25,1%
Mp: 6,7%

C: 6,7%
Fp: 5,2%
Kd: 3,3%
M: 23,3%

SD: 19,4%

Hmmm. Was the SD surge a temporary thing connected to a special event/news story? Or do you think this is an outlier?

The respondents have been polled from August 3 until August 23, a much wider time span than most other Swedish polls. That makes it harder to compare this poll to polls that have been taken in, for instance, four or five days.

19,4% is certainly somewhat lower than SD's average score in August, but I wouldn't call it a real outlier either. 20-23% seem to be "average". The 25,2% "omg SD in first place" poll seemed more like an outlier.

We have had two 23%+ and one 22%+, so there was a surge. It is not just about one poll. Now you got two polls being significantly lower, so even disregarding this one my question to Sweedish Cheese stills stands.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Stockholm has always been a bourgeois city with little in the way of the union base that social democrats base their success on.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

Hmmm. Was the SD surge a temporary thing connected to a special event/news story? Or do you think this is an outlier?

The YouGov poll was taken right around the IKEA murder, which probably bloated their numbers significantly in that particular poll. Still this result in Novus, is an increase from SD's last result in Novus, so the party is still clearly growing in all polls.

[SNJ1985]

The Sweden Democrats are calling for a referendum on immigration policy:

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/swedens-far-wants-referendum-immigration-160637122.html

[politicus]

The Sweden Democrats are calling for a referendum on immigration policy:

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/swedens-far-wants-referendum-immigration-160637122.html

Trolling. You need a majority in parliament for a referendum in Sweden.

[DavidB.]

However, many people will feel that they are right, and the other parties will surely throw in all of the elitist arguments against referendums in the worst possible way, and by doing so, they will convince even more people to support SD - which, of course, is the real reason SD does this.

As Gustaf put it:

The Swedish left is so easy to play for SD.

[politicus]

However, many people will feel that they are right, and the other parties will surely throw in all of the elitist arguments against referendums in the worst possible way, and by doing so, they will convince even more people to support SD - which, of course, is the real reason SD does this.

Yup, so trolling.

[DavidB.]

Well, yeah, the proposal is trolling, but the real intention behind it goes somewhat further than that and is actually perfectly fitting in SD's strategy to present itself as "the [real] opposition party".

[politicus]

Well, yeah, the proposal is trolling, but the real intention behind it goes somewhat further than that and is actually perfectly fitting in SD's strategy to present itself as "the [real] opposition party".

Trolling is a tactic, which can be used to obtain several outcomes. It is not necessarily a motive in itself.

[DavidB.]

Sure. I think we're already in agreement.

[ingemann]

1.) Why is Stockholm a stronghold of the center-right?

I think this is a better question than most people realise, even if our Swedish posters are tired of answering it.

The answer is as Gustaf say, because Stockholm are rich, but there's a more interesting structural explanation. In most European countries, rural areas was primarily agricultural areas, which mean they was home to mostly farmers. While cities was home to the growing industries, which resulted in a large working class. Sweden on the other hand developed much of their early industry in rural areas, from early copper mining, glass making, pine tar production, iron mining etc, so they developed a rural working class. At the same time any farmers was in many areas extremely poor and often worked as workers in the industry too, so these people had interest in socialist policies. The cities on the other hand was too large extent home to the capitalist class, those who serviced them and richer skilled workers. It's also why when we look at Scania which share similar structures to Denmark, we see much more similar voting pattern to Denmark.

This is unusual in European context, but we spots around Europe which share similar structures, like the rural areas in Westphalia which belong to Prussia before 1789, which was also home to rural industries.

[Famous Mortimer]

Most of the former Soviet Bloc countries have a similar left-wing rural/right-wing cities divide. Same reason?

[ingemann]

Most of the former Soviet Bloc countries have a similar left-wing rural/right-wing cities divide. Same reason?

In general no, but it's complex, yes communism spread some industries to rural areas, but it's more a element of other aspects, tradition agriculture are not competive in eastern Europe (so anti-free market), the rural population are older and have less employment (the pensions and remnants of the old welfare states are more important for old people) and rural people are in general more reactionary than urban people, and socialism in the Soviet block was the old establishment.

[Gustaf]

Randomly jumping in here with two questions:

1.) Why is Stockholm a stronghold of the center-right?


2.) When I was visiting Vadstena, Odeshog, and Urnatur in May, I met two local green politicians. How strong is the Green Party in Sweden? Is it common for them to be in rural areas and small towns?

Also, we had a talk with the man who owns the treehouse hotel at Urnatur (he's one of the politicians we met) and told us he resented many Greens from the city because they believe that people should all live in cities, while he advocates that people live in the country. How strong is this divide in the Swedish Green Party?


Also, why the f*** do you people not export Kina Wafers??? They are now my favorite chocolate and they're not available in the U.S.

That is just wrong on so many levels.

1. Apart from recently with the SD, Swedish politics has a strong consensus on social issues and is divided mostly alongside economic lines. City people are rich. Imagine if New York was voting solely on economics and rural Kentucky was doing the same.

2. The Green party mostly has strength in cities and university areas but they exist elsewhere too. A former party leader made them biggest party in rural northern Kalix. The Green party generally does badly in rural areas for the reason you cited so I wouldn't call it a strong divide within the party.

The Kina wafers are under fire for racism, I believe, so that may not help.

I get what you're saying but New York isn't the best example since it's actually about 60% poor minorities and even among the Whites, a good chunk are either poor White ethnics living way out in the middle of nowhere in far west Brooklyn or hipsters making $10 an hour but getting by only because they don't have kids.

Yeah I guess one of the richest cities in the world with the same GDP per capita as Stockholm is a horribly analogy for Stockholm as a rich city.

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/reports/2012/1/18-global-metro-monitor/0118_global_metro_monitor.pdf

[Famous Mortimer]

Randomly jumping in here with two questions:

1.) Why is Stockholm a stronghold of the center-right?


2.) When I was visiting Vadstena, Odeshog, and Urnatur in May, I met two local green politicians. How strong is the Green Party in Sweden? Is it common for them to be in rural areas and small towns?

Also, we had a talk with the man who owns the treehouse hotel at Urnatur (he's one of the politicians we met) and told us he resented many Greens from the city because they believe that people should all live in cities, while he advocates that people live in the country. How strong is this divide in the Swedish Green Party?


Also, why the f*** do you people not export Kina Wafers??? They are now my favorite chocolate and they're not available in the U.S.

That is just wrong on so many levels.

1. Apart from recently with the SD, Swedish politics has a strong consensus on social issues and is divided mostly alongside economic lines. City people are rich. Imagine if New York was voting solely on economics and rural Kentucky was doing the same.

2. The Green party mostly has strength in cities and university areas but they exist elsewhere too. A former party leader made them biggest party in rural northern Kalix. The Green party generally does badly in rural areas for the reason you cited so I wouldn't call it a strong divide within the party.

The Kina wafers are under fire for racism, I believe, so that may not help.

I get what you're saying but New York isn't the best example since it's actually about 60% poor minorities and even among the Whites, a good chunk are either poor White ethnics living way out in the middle of nowhere in far west Brooklyn or hipsters making $10 an hour but getting by only because they don't have kids.

Yeah I guess one of the richest cities in the world with the same GDP per capita as Stockholm is a horribly analogy for Stockholm as a rich city.

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/reports/2012/1/18-global-metro-monitor/0118_global_metro_monitor.pdf

Your original point was that if New York voted based solely on economic self interest, they would vote conservative like Stockholm does. So yes, it was a bad analogy. New York already votes based on economic self interest. Most New Yorkers vote Democrat because most New Yorkers are poor.

[politicus]

Randomly jumping in here with two questions:

1.) Why is Stockholm a stronghold of the center-right?


2.) When I was visiting Vadstena, Odeshog, and Urnatur in May, I met two local green politicians. How strong is the Green Party in Sweden? Is it common for them to be in rural areas and small towns?

Also, we had a talk with the man who owns the treehouse hotel at Urnatur (he's one of the politicians we met) and told us he resented many Greens from the city because they believe that people should all live in cities, while he advocates that people live in the country. How strong is this divide in the Swedish Green Party?


Also, why the f*** do you people not export Kina Wafers??? They are now my favorite chocolate and they're not available in the U.S.

That is just wrong on so many levels.

1. Apart from recently with the SD, Swedish politics has a strong consensus on social issues and is divided mostly alongside economic lines. City people are rich. Imagine if New York was voting solely on economics and rural Kentucky was doing the same.

2. The Green party mostly has strength in cities and university areas but they exist elsewhere too. A former party leader made them biggest party in rural northern Kalix. The Green party generally does badly in rural areas for the reason you cited so I wouldn't call it a strong divide within the party.

The Kina wafers are under fire for racism, I believe, so that may not help.

I get what you're saying but New York isn't the best example since it's actually about 60% poor minorities and even among the Whites, a good chunk are either poor White ethnics living way out in the middle of nowhere in far west Brooklyn or hipsters making $10 an hour but getting by only because they don't have kids.

Yeah I guess one of the richest cities in the world with the same GDP per capita as Stockholm is a horribly analogy for Stockholm as a rich city.

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/reports/2012/1/18-global-metro-monitor/0118_global_metro_monitor.pdf

Your original point was that if New York voted based solely on economic self interest, they would vote conservative like Stockholm does. So yes, it was a bad analogy. New York already votes based on economic self interest. Most New Yorkers vote Democrat because most New Yorkers are poor.

Yes, the income distribution being a lot more unequal in NY than in Stockholm makes the difference.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

Randomly jumping in here with two questions:

1.) Why is Stockholm a stronghold of the center-right?


2.) When I was visiting Vadstena, Odeshog, and Urnatur in May, I met two local green politicians. How strong is the Green Party in Sweden? Is it common for them to be in rural areas and small towns?

Also, we had a talk with the man who owns the treehouse hotel at Urnatur (he's one of the politicians we met) and told us he resented many Greens from the city because they believe that people should all live in cities, while he advocates that people live in the country. How strong is this divide in the Swedish Green Party?


Also, why the f*** do you people not export Kina Wafers??? They are now my favorite chocolate and they're not available in the U.S.

That is just wrong on so many levels.

1. Apart from recently with the SD, Swedish politics has a strong consensus on social issues and is divided mostly alongside economic lines. City people are rich. Imagine if New York was voting solely on economics and rural Kentucky was doing the same.

2. The Green party mostly has strength in cities and university areas but they exist elsewhere too. A former party leader made them biggest party in rural northern Kalix. The Green party generally does badly in rural areas for the reason you cited so I wouldn't call it a strong divide within the party.

The Kina wafers are under fire for racism, I believe, so that may not help.

I get what you're saying but New York isn't the best example since it's actually about 60% poor minorities and even among the Whites, a good chunk are either poor White ethnics living way out in the middle of nowhere in far west Brooklyn or hipsters making $10 an hour but getting by only because they don't have kids.

Yeah I guess one of the richest cities in the world with the same GDP per capita as Stockholm is a horribly analogy for Stockholm as a rich city.

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/reports/2012/1/18-global-metro-monitor/0118_global_metro_monitor.pdf

Your original point was that if New York voted based solely on economic self interest, they would vote conservative like Stockholm does. So yes, it was a bad analogy. New York already votes based on economic self interest. Most New Yorkers vote Democrat because most New Yorkers are poor.

It's also worth noting that there's quite a few "bobo" types in New York who fall in the upper part of the income distribution who would almost certainly vote for the left in Sweden.