“Like going to bed with Hillary Clinton and waking up with Donald Trump.” The words belong to the former social democratic party leader Mona Sahlin, and this is how the election night may have faded for a tired social democrat who went to bed early. For a long time it seemed to go the way of the Swedish Labor Party. Journalists and commentators had promised an election thriller, but in the first hours it looked quite predictable. Before a single mandate turned everything upside down. The following day, there is still a touch of uncertainty about what the final outcome will be. But there is no doubt about who the election’s clear winners are: It is the disputed and outcast Sweden Democrats (SD). The price of Jimmie Venstresiden tried to turn the Swedish election into a referendum on the Swedish Democrats. The Sweden Democrats won. When Sweden is at the top of Europe in terms of shooting incidents and playing children become random victims of gang settlements, it is perhaps not surprising that one in five Swedes has gone to the party that has spoken loudest, most and longest about stopping the criminal gangs. Party leader Jimmie Åkesson was for a long time a “persona non grata”. The party was to be silenced and condemned. There are still party leaders who refuse to take him by the hand. Now, by all accounts, he has a very large influence in Swedish politics. One can only imagine what the election victory tastes like, but what everyone is wondering now is how much Jimmie Åkesson will sell for. Because the situation is undeniably special. It is SD that has won the election for the bourgeois, but is not wanted in government. Will they accept it? And what will it cost in terms of political influence to keep SD out of government? Before the election, Åkesson demanded, among other things, a ban on begging, deportation for offences, separate zones where body searches can be carried out without reason and to lower the criminal minimum age. What tends to disappear when you talk about SD as a right-wing party is that in economic policy they are in favor of a generous welfare state with increased spending on everything from unemployment benefits to dental health. Risen from the dead Early on election night, when it looked like the left would win, many wrote on the obituary of Moderate party leader Ulf Kristersson. For several weeks, a debate had bubbled over whether he had what it took to win elections. He had already lost in 2018, and this was the election that, on paper, was almost impossible to lose. The Social Democrats have ruled the country for 8 years, and the election campaign was largely about everything that was painful and difficult in Swedish society. High crime, economic unrest and the energy crisis should guarantee a solid bourgeois victory. But Ulf Kristersson almost rose from the dead when the clock ticked towards 11 p.m., and will probably become Sweden’s next prime minister. It also shows how small the margins are between being declared an idiot, as he would surely be if there is no change of government, and being the election winner. Ulf Kristersson could finally smile. But he still does not dare to take the victory for granted. Photo: Fredrik Sandberg / AP What can go wrong? Kristersson already seems ready for the role of prime minister. The aggressive opposition politician he appeared to be in the run-up to the election has now been replaced by a statesman who urges a gathering and “an adult conversation”. To say the least, it can come in handy. Although the bourgeois have appeared as a united team with good personal chemistry in the election debates, there is a lot that can go wrong. Which parties will enter government? And how big a blow to the Sweden Democrats can they withstand? Both the Christian Democrats and the Liberals have taken a big risk by letting SD into the heat. Had there not been an election victory, there would certainly have been a debate about whether this was a failed strategy. Half-Norwegian Ebba Busch has made the Christian Democrats the main door opener for Jimmie Åkesson. She is also a natural government partner for the Moderates. Greater is the uncertainty surrounding what the Liberals can come up with. Internally in the party, there is a significant minority who believe it is wrong to cooperate with the immigration-critical party. The Liberals, who are incidentally one of Venstre’s two sister parties, managed to switch sides twice in the previous government period. In Sweden, there is already experience that defectors can change the entire balance. Extra vulnerable is when there is a narrow majority and with such a controversial party as SD as part of the cabal. Even if Kristersson ends up as prime minister, he can live dangerously. The warning lights are flashing Although the Social Democrats are likely to lose power, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson has impressed. She has made the party tougher on crime and immigration policy and lifted the party. Many in the Norwegian Labor Party ponder how she could win such great personal trust in a time of crisis, while those at home struggle with popularity. The election also suggests a dramatic change in the Social Democrats’ voter base. They have lost heavily in the countryside, in industrial areas and among the traditional working class, while they have done well in the big cities. Previously it was the opposite. The big cities were blue, while the rest of the country was red and green bastions. It causes the warning lights to flash, not least in the trade union movement. Are the Social Democrats starting to become a party for those who live and work in areas where coffee shops are close, while their traditional voters who build cars, cut timber and melt steel prefer the Sweden Democrats or the Moderates? Spreekende staur A meager consolation for Magdalena Andersson is that she will probably not have to unite the Left Party, the Center Party and the Green Party. It’s putting it mildly to carry a gaping staur. The three cooperation parties on the left would also make it difficult for her to fulfill her promises of stricter and stricter crime and immigration policy. The other parties believe that higher penalties are the wrong medicine, and point to outsiders and inequality in schools as important causes of gang crime. Paradoxically, the new party Nyans, which targets immigrants in the suburbs, may have taken votes from the left. Not least, the party which fights for separate bathing times for boys and girls, wants to ban Koran burning and wants more religious free schools could have been a dream opponent for the Sweden Democrats.
ttn-69
The man no one can ignore anymore – Expression
