The preliminary result of the Swedish Parliament election on Sunday the 17th show a victory for the Conservatives, who can form a coalition with the three other centre-right parties of the Parliament. This will be the first Cabinet in Sweden for 25 years that has direct support of a majority of the Parliament. For the first time in twelve years, the centre-right takes over the government in Sweden.



Stay tuned for more facts.

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President Josiah Bartlet: Sweden has a 100% literacy rate. 100%! How do they do that?
Leo McGarry: Maybe they don't and they can't add.

Do you have a link for some more info. I think what happened is great.

There is an article from the BBC where you can read more.

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President Josiah Bartlet: Sweden has a 100% literacy rate. 100%! How do they do that?
Leo McGarry: Maybe they don't and they can't add.

And what's your opinion ?

Why did Parsson lose, what can the Conservatives offer that the Social Democrats have failed to do ?

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______________________Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.”___________________Alexander Solzhenitsyn

A better- run campaign, at least. And perhaps a bit more progressive thinking? Besides, Reinfeldt isn't Persson.. that's a big plus. But I think an important thing about the election is that.. the moderates didn't simply oppose the welfare state, they (at lest seem to) have their own solution on how to fix it. So they "beat" the Social- democrats on their strong issues, like job- creation, welfare, district- policy, etc. And that's.. perhaps not a bad thing, I heard some suggest.

On the other hand, I suspect Reinfeldt have promised much more than he can reasonably be expected to keep, and that their coalition may end up, if they're supposed to keep their promises, much more left on labour and welfare than they would perhaps like to.. Any thoughts on that, DGG?

It's going to be interesting to see some draft on what they're going to do with the districts, anyway... I keep suspecting that some of our blue people just moved over the border and had an opportunity to try their plan one more time. Just to be prove it wasn't as bad as it turned out to be, and that the people was the problem after all.

Yes, this was my impression too when I read an article (in newspaper Le Monde, in French sorry) about the results of the elections in Sweden. According to statistics, Sweden has a unemployment rate - around 5% - which Germany and France would dream of ... It is probably correct that this quote hides a much larger unemployment - However, by promising to reduce this hidden part, the Conservatives are making a dangerous deal.

There are probably other things, but that struck me the most. I must add here that I belong to those who do not believe that it is possible to create more jobs in our western economies. Only more highly qualified jobs, that yes, but this concerns a small minority.

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______________________Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.”___________________Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Sweden supposedly is in a very good position compared to other EU members. Certainly they will have their share of problems too, but I guess, Perrson has not been voted down because he f*** up his country that much, has he?

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When the Nazis came for the communists I remained silent, I was no communist.
When the Nazis came for the Unionists I remained silent, I was no Unionist.
When the Nazis came for the Social Democrats I remained silent, I was no Social Democrat.
When the Nazis came for the Jews I remained silent, I was no Jew.
When the Nazis came for me, there was no one left who could protest.

Could you list the 10 most important things that the new Swedish government wants to change or do?

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It all comes down to this on election day: Are you a racist, or do you look down on spastics?

1. Make it easier to hire people through lower employer's taxes, especially when it comes to younger people.

2. Lower the compensation for unemployed people, so they will have a greater economic incentive to take a job offered to them.

3. Free the employers from the duty to pay some of their employees' sickness benefits. Evidence shows that only a tiny part of all the employees who have to stay home from work do this due to injuries or sickness caused by the workplace, still this was the cause for the Social Democrats to enact this rule a couple of years ago. It has put an unnecessary burden on employers, making them more hesitant to employ people.

4. Abolish the real estate tax. It is weird to have to pay taxes on something when you do not earn any money on it. It is a tax on living and it has put a huge burden on many elderly people who has worked all their lives to be able to buy a house.

5. Lower the income taxes for everybody, primarily for those who earn the least.

6. Enact statutes that allow teachers to do more to uphold order in the class room, for example allowing them to take a mobile phone away from a pupil.

7. Make sure pupils in schools get grades from their 6th year in school, not from the 8th year as is the case now. (Personally, I see no reason why they could not get grades from the first year in school.)

8. Enact statutes that guarantee that everyone who needs medical care will get this within a maximum time limit. This worked the last time the centre-right alliance was in power 1991-94.

9. Be tougher on crime, for instance through new statutory laws telling the courts to use the whole range of the possible sentences for different crimes and not just the lower ranges as is commonly the case now.

10. Respect the referendums on car tolls in Stockholm, not only the referendum held in the City of Stockholm itself, but also those in the suburbian towns around Stockholm. The Social Democrats did not want any other referendums than that in the City of Stockholm to be respected, because this would allow them to keep the tolls.

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President Josiah Bartlet: Sweden has a 100% literacy rate. 100%! How do they do that?
Leo McGarry: Maybe they don't and they can't add.

I have to admit that I don't know much about Swedish politics. Why was Persson kicked out? I always got the impression that he did quite a good job.

He was fairly good for many years, I have to admit that though I am a member of the Conservative party. However, over the last couple of years, it has become more and more evident that he was tired of being Prime Minister. At the same time, he had no "natural" successor as party leader and PM. It was generally said that the former Foreign Minister Anna Lindh would succeed him, but she was stabbed to death by an insane man in the autumn of 2003.

After twelve years in power, many Swedes were tired of being ruled by the Social Democrats. I guess it can be compared with the feelings in Germany when people did not want to keep Helmut Kohl as PM.

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President Josiah Bartlet: Sweden has a 100% literacy rate. 100%! How do they do that?
Leo McGarry: Maybe they don't and they can't add.

I see, thanks for the explanation.

.. I'd forgotten about that.

..But it might have been a very good outcome all in all, then? A conservative government to match some realities of the economic policies, but with a fairly strong social democrat opposition (who are not bound by being in government)? Some say it's about to become capitalism for every single coin, though, and that the social democracy is finished. But would it be a fair guess that what the conservatives are aiming for, say, lower retirement age, more job- creation for younger people, easier hiring practices and things of that sort? Do you think there's a chance they could make a few big changes this period, and that they'll end up being popular ones?

Yes, I think so. The new centre-right cabinet will have a majority of the Parliament behind it, so it will be able to make a lot of the changes they have jointly promissed to make.

Lowered retirement age is nothing that has been discussed. On the contrary, it has been discussed to raise the retirement age, but no party has suggested that this will be done.

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President Josiah Bartlet: Sweden has a 100% literacy rate. 100%! How do they do that?
Leo McGarry: Maybe they don't and they can't add.

I have read several analysis of the Swedish election that suggests something very similar to the Canadian election last year.

Similarities: Canada and Sweden are among the best run governments in the Western world over the last 20 years or so (lowest deficits, lowest debts, highest growth, etc). Canada and Sweden have both been ruled by a 'left-of-centre' party for most of those years. Both ruling parties encountered corruption scandals in the year previous to the election.

In both cases, 'conservative' (or centre-right if you prefer in the context) parties took over government - primarily by promising to generally maintain the status quo - promising only to 'fix' some broken parts or engage in some modest reforms.