Swedish General Election 2022

[Aimless]

Counting has commenced, final tally to be reported on wed/thu, but we should have a pretty clear idea by tomorrow. Polls have been all over the place, but averages of all polls indicate that all parties currently in Riksdagen will remain, and no new parties will pass the threshold. That said, the Green Party is perilously close to getting kicked out; the satirically named Liberal (libertarian) party was also close for a while, but I think they have a decent margin now.

I voted for a local rep. of the Center Party for Riksdagen, and for two brothers I respect and trust for municipal & regional govts. They're with the Social Democrats rn; if they switch parties, my vote will follow.

I've spent the past several weeks speaking with local politicians and reps from the different parties' youth wings, focusing on their collective failure to treat people with non-European backgrounds as relevant and interesting political agents. It's really striking how almost every single party and pol automatically turn to discourses that frame these voters as problems that need to be solved or "managed", rather than as people to work with (and for).

Of the parties I've spoken with about these matters, reps for the Center Party have appeared to be the most pro-active (as evinced by an apparently successful multi-year project aimed at increasing the number of active pols on their party lists who have non-European backgrounds), as well as the most receptive.

There's a great deal of displeasure among Social Democrats in my town re. the increasingly xenophobic and borderline racist stance of the Social Democratic party, but the party's culture is such that I don't see things changing for the better for another two terms at least.

Local Christian Democrats are more red than their national counterparts, and there are some who've actively tried to engage with immigrants as if they're actual people, so there's a way forward there. Moderates (Swedish Tories) used to be sensible and principled, but the shame of being eclipsed by the Sweden Democrats despite their enthusiastic incorporation of racist policies and rhetoric—combined with one guy's dreams of rising to national prominence—has made most of them go off the deep end. Liberals here in my town seem to have given up, and can't muster any better ideas than "listen? maybe?"... which isn't surprising given the high-profile defections from Liberals all over the country, mostly to the Center.

Anyway, it'll be an exciting night, and I'm hoping for the best while expecting the worst. In sthlm for a course all week. In my first three hours, I chatted with people from six different countries. The future is ours.

[Loki]

Well, that didn't end well.

Glad you're taking an active role in local politics though. Best way to make a difference. Given the size of its majority and its ideological composition, I also wonder how long this government will last.

[Lewkowski]

Sounds like (from the brief article I read, by no means an expert in that countries politics) that tough on crime message resonated.

[Loki]

More like any incumbent government in the world right now is in trouble due to the inflation.

[Lewkowski]

More like any incumbent government in the world right now is in trouble due to the inflation.

Maybe you could look deeper:

https://www.commonsense.news/p/two-b...t-thats-normal

Yesterday morning, Swedes woke up to news of a kind that has become all-too familiar: During the night, powerful bombs exploded at apartment buildings in two different towns in southern Sweden.

One person was severely injured in Åstorp, where a witness told the press: “People screamed and cried. It felt so unreal.” A resident told Radio Sweden that his 7-year-old had come running into his bedroom screaming, as the blast made their apartment shake.

In Helsingborg, the explosion was so powerful that, according to the police, cars parked nearby were destroyed. It is still unclear if the bombings are connected to each other, or who is behind them.

Since 2018, there have been almost 500 bombings—yes, bombings—in what is known as one of the most stable societies in the world.

There’s not just a bombing problem. There are shootings, too.

Sweden, which has a population of around 10 million, has the highest per-capita number of deadly shootings of 22 European countries. Forty-seven people have been shot dead so far this year, which, while far from American levels of gun homicide, is extreme for Europe. Other European countries have come to look at Sweden with horror.

It may be shocking for Americans to learn that in Sweden—the land of IKEA, Spotify and Greta Thunberg—all of this is going on. Perhaps the reason you don’t know about it is because of the uncomfortable reality of how we got here.

Among shooting suspects, 85 percent are first- or second-generation immigrants, according to the newspaper Dagens Nyheter, as immigrant neighborhoods have become hotbeds for gang crime. National Police Commissioner Anders Thornberg has described the violence as “an entirely different kind of brutality than we’ve seen before” and his deputy, Mats Löfving, says that 40 criminal clans now operate throughout the country. Spreading fear are “humiliation robberies,” targeting children and youth, in which victims are subjected to degrading treatment by assailants, such as being urinated upon. Just this week, four men were sentenced for robbing, beating and urinating on an 18-year-old, who was also filmed by his tormentors.

All of which is why, for the first time ever, crime emerged as a top priority among voters ahead of this past weekend’s general election. Swedes made their concerns plain on Sunday, when they awarded the country’s most strident anti-immigration party more than 20 percent of the vote.

The Sweden Democrats, or SD, is now the second-biggest party in parliament, and the biggest party of the right-wing bloc—gaining more votes than the more traditional center-right Moderate party. (It remains to be seen whether Ulf Kristersson, leader of the Moderates, can form a government with the support of SD, while sticking to his promise not to allow the party into the government coalition.)

So how did Sweden’s famously liberal electorate usher in a party with roots on the extreme right? In a word: denial.

In response to Sweden’s increasing problems with gang violence and social unrest in immigrant suburbs, the government’s strategy for many years was to deny how serious the situation had become. ​​In the meantime, those people who noticed the problem—many of whom were working class—and spoke out about their diminished safety were accused of racism by leading politicians, the mainstream press, and the cultural elites. Only one political party did not: the SD. And in election after election, they gained more and more popular support.

This is a story of what happens when the people who run things want to avoid confronting the consequences of their actions.

[LittleFuzzy]

People always show more fear about their physical security when they feel less economically secure. Our brains aren't wired to be able to tell the difference or prevent bleedthrough.

[Loki]

Chances are the crime issues are at least partially caused by economic problems, too.

[Aimless]

Chances are the crime issues are at least partially caused by economic problems, too.

Moderate-led govt. gutted both social services and police force last time they were in power, against expert advice. Many of the issues that drove Swedes to vote for them were predictable consequences of the choices they themselves made a decade ago. For the opposition to fare this poorly during a time of extreme uncertainty and increasing hardship is... a little embarrassing, to say the least. Surprising gains for Social Democrats and Left in traditionally conservative-led cities and regions, although Social Democrats seem prone to fumbling the ball. Vote to appoint the Speaker on Monday will be interesting, may give a hint as to how long it'll be before the new govt. steps in.

[Lewkowski]

People always show more fear about their physical security when they feel less economically secure. Our brains aren't wired to be able to tell the difference or prevent bleedthrough.

Or perhaps they fear for their physical safety more when there are literal bombs going off? Maybe a little bit of column a and a little of column b but I really think the b in bombs matters more.

[Loki]

Twitter Link

Thread explains a lot about how the far right won.