Sweden election results thread (Sept 14, 2014)

[ingemann]

SD now at 16.9% after 21 polling places reported.

F! at only 1.9%.

That doesn't mean anything yet ...

It means they are counting hick country.

Not how I would have said it, but yes when we are at such low percents, they're counting rural areas, and here local preference can have a large influence on the early counting.

[ingemann]

Great job, Swedes! Welcome to the same nightmarish hell that other European countries have been living through for a while. Apparently you're no better than them.

Being a little overdramatic here, aren't we? It's still going to be a minority for the left.

Yeah, with a bunch of xenophobic bastards holding the balance of power. Surely this is gonna be a wonderful left-wing government.

SAP cooperation across the aisle with the centre-right is not exactly an alien concept to Swedish politics.

Yeah, isn't that quite a common thing in Scandinavia? Hasn't HTS had to get some stuff passed with Venstre instead of Red-Green in Denmark? (or am I thinking of Borgen?)

Yes, through it should be remembered that Denmark have always been the least Social Democratic country in Scandinavia thanks to a different social structure from our northern neighbours. SAP have more often been able to gain a majority left of centre, while it have been relative rare in Denmark (and never a success).

[ingemann]

Reinfeldt has announced his resignation.

Both as PM and party leader.

Good riddance.

[ingemann]

For any further comment on this election, refer to the first quote in my sig.

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It was neither a surprising result or a big surprise that SD got more votes than the polls showed.

[ingemann]

For any further comment on this election, refer to the first quote in my sig.

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It was neither a surprising result or a big surprise that SD got more votes than the polls showed.

Is that supposed to make things better? It's not working.

No it was not supposed making you feel better, it was a comment about stop making a big drama out it, the new government will likely keep Reinfeldt promise about taking 360 000 Syrian refugees in the next 4 years (more than Germany takes), they will likely raise the taxes to pay for it. So be happy for that at least.

[ingemann]

the new government will likely keep Reinfeldt promise about taking 360 000 Syrian refugees in the next 4 years

I may be misremembering but didn't the government essentially agree to take an unlimited number, like as many as could make it to Sweden?

Well yes, but that's the number they expect to come.

[ingemann]

For any further comment on this election, refer to the first quote in my sig.

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It was neither a surprising result or a big surprise that SD got more votes than the polls showed.

Is that supposed to make things better? It's not working.

No it was not supposed making you feel better, it was a comment about stop making a big drama out it, the new government will likely keep Reinfeldt promise about taking 360 000 Syrian refugees in the next 4 years (more than Germany takes), they will likely raise the taxes to pay for it. So be happy for that at least.

In Antonios defence, if you view the last 40 years of European history as one long rearguard battle for Social Democrats against an advancing neoliberal wave (and that is not an unreasonable take on European political history), then a party as strong as SAP not being able to regain a left wing majority with a worn down bourgeois government is a big dissapointment.
Basically it is yet another proof that Social Democracy as a political force is in big trouble even in countries where it once dominated.

Yes and I agree that's bad news, but there have been a demographic development which have caused that, and it will not turn around unless we create a large impoverish working class again, which I as Social Democrat have no wish to see. We have to large extent won, which mean that we can't just expect people to vote for us, for what we have delivered, we have deliver new solution to the problems of today.

[ingemann]

Well, this could have gone better. :/

What did you people expect, that mixing egg throwing (after SD), calling for mass immigration and ignoring SD would result in SD not getting a great election.

SD could not have asked for a greater PR campaign than what the rest of the Swedish political establishment gave them, and the worst part of it, is that the Swedish political establishment and medias, will use the next four years on making them even bigger at next election.

So no it could not have gone better than it did, because that would have demanded a entirely different behaviour from the political establishment and the media.

[ingemann]

Michel Onfray (french philosopher) said the only thing stopping the Communist Party of France from getting the 25%-35% ''it deserves'' is its inability to distance itself with what Onfray calls 'La Gauche Culturelle'. While I think he's exaggerating that score, he's right in saying the cultural act of being a ''leftist'' is unfashionable and totally out of touch with working class people. They do not give a flying  about Maoist China or Fidel Castro's beard.

But seriously have you seen the youth of today? Any radicals are alienated or tend to be far right intellectuals of the Soral type (make some complicated argument in order to obscure the fact that you don't like gays because it's against the status quo). The internet is just one big popularity contest where you go on your own forum and spout the slogans some fat dude with a shotgun over the Atlantic wants to hear.

We are screwed.

Not that I disagree with what you're saying, but it's 2014, is this really news? It's been clear for many decades that most of those on the left--especially intellectuals and "cultural leftists"--are completely out of touch with the working class/lower classes they claim to want to liberate....

I would say that no most are not out of touch with the working class, but the left's culture warriors are.

[ingemann]

Well, this could have gone better. :/

What did you people expect, that mixing egg throwing (after SD), calling for mass immigration and ignoring SD would result in SD not getting a great election.

SD could not have asked for a greater PR campaign than what the rest of the Swedish political establishment gave them, and the worst part of it, is that the Swedish political establishment and medias, will use the next four years on making them even bigger at next election.

So no it could not have gone better than it did, because that would have demanded a entirely different behaviour from the political establishment and the media.

There's a difference between 11% and 13%.

The problem here is that the opinions of the elite - at least the liberal establishment and definitely Reinfeldt - appear to be sincere. And why cater to populism when that's what the Danes have done, leading to DF aspiring on pole position?

The Danish establishment behaved exactly as the Swedish one, the first few election DPP took part in, ity's why we look at you and think you're idiots for making the same mistakes as we did and taking them even further.

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Yes I guess Danish media mostly ignore Sweden outside things like elections and of course the broadcast receiving licence media have to cover Sweden and Norway a little more, that's in their chapter.

[ingemann]

It seems F! is doing much better in the count of absentee ballots or whatever it is. They're at 3.8% there now, even though not a single district of Stockholm has been counted yet. That's an increase of 3.3% from last election.

http://www.val.se/val/val2014/slutresultat/R/rike/index.html

Some 7% of districts have been counted.

Or these are maybe all votes being counted a 2nd time? It's all a bit confusing...

Yay so they have wasted even more of the left's votes.

[ingemann]

This thread is rather melodramatic, given that the centre-left parties still managed to form government and won a decent share of the vote. If they perform well, who knows, they could be back with a majority in four years time.

First of all it's very hard to satify their voters without having a majority, second they won't deal with the reasons SD are growing, so that won't stop, unless they're lucky and SD implodes (very unlikely). So no I doubt we will see a red majority in near future.

[ingemann]

@ingemann: SD is not DPP, and it carries a whole lot of baggage that made any alternative to treating them as a pariah party in the 90's and early 00's an impossibility. There's been mistakes done since then, yes, especially around 2002, but maybe it's just history being inevitable.

Yes SD are not DPP and yes you couldn't have treated them as anything other than a pariah before 2010. Of course even today you don't need to include them, but you need to deal with the reason they exist.

That means taking the immigration issue seriously. Not deal with it by yelling racist and putting your collective fingers in the ears.

Also another way to deal with them, is by making them a real party, include them in issues outside the immigration issue, in fact they're so desperate to be taken serious, that you can make some unpopular compromise with them, with will both hurt their brand, but also make more normal.

[ingemann]

Looks like Stefan Loefven told Left party that he does not want to include Left Party in new government.  Not sure what Loefven is up to.  Is he hoping to rope in all if C-FP into his government?  Did not C already rule this out? It this does not work out are we not looking at at a budget talks failure in a few months?

Having a government that functions.

S+MP was alwas the most likely centre-left option. Including Left would make it harder to make a budget deal across the aisle.

I understand that, but having a government that only represents 36-37% of voters (less than what an Alliance government would represent) is a pretty unfortunate situation.

It make little practical difference whether a government have 36% or 44% of the MPs, if they can't get a majority with its supporting parties. The government have to work over the middle no matter what, so they're better off without the parties, which have it the hardest with compromising with the other side, and Vänsterpartiet are unlikely to pull their support, and honestly Vänsterpartiet is also better off without becoming part of this whole mess.

[ingemann]

This thread is getting way too sage for its own good.

What do you expect? Its a Sweden thread without any Swedes to give us some proper analysis (most of them are probably drowning their sorrows, Gustaf might actually be celebrating). Idle speculation, sagery and rhetorical grand standing is bound to fill the void.

Why would I be celebrating?

The "leftists" managing to throw away what looked like a certain victory, likely paving the way for a swift return of the centre-right in a couple of years. For an Alliance supporter this result is as good as it could realistically get.

Anyway, that post was obviously not 100% serious.

So according to val.se, the official results have just finished to be counted a couple minutes ago.

Turnout is at 85.80% (+1.23), the highest figure since 1994. The only good thing to come out of this election, I guess.

And 1,21% higher than the Scottish referendum - a testimony to the failure of Scotland's Choice that they couldn't get a higher turnout for their nation's choice of a lifetime than a regular Scandinavian parliamentary election.

The British and Americans could learn a thing or two from the Swedes. Hold an election, get a result that's 99,9% accurate in 4 hours and then finish the "fine counting" in 4,5 days. That's the way to do it.

As much as I like to be smug about every superior quality in all things Scandinavian, and I do like that very much...

No one should have Swedish style ballots, no one are harmed by the fact it took a night to count the Scottish vote, but th Swedish semi-open ballot do harm people by bringing a social pressure to be open about your vote and thereby votes for the right party or parties.