Sweden copes with close parliamentary elections-Xinhua
Photo taken on September 7, 2022 shows the Riksdagshuset in Stockholm, Sweden. (Xinhua/Fu Yiming)
by Xinhua writers Fu Yiming, He Miao
STOCKHOLM, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) — People in Sweden go to the polls on Sept. 11 to elect a new parliament amid a spiraling energy crisis, rising crime and the ongoing debate over the country’s bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
The anti-immigration, far-right Sweden Democrats are now the second largest party in the polls, far ahead of the liberal conservative Moderates. Regardless of their possible political weight, the Sweden Democrats have already managed to shift the country’s entire political spectrum to the right, which further complicates the formation of a new government.
FAR RIGHT LIKE BECOMING KINGMAKER
A survey conducted by the Swedish opinion and social research company Sifo and published on Wednesday gave the Sweden Democrats 21 percent against the Social Democrats’ 30.1 percent and the Moderates’ 17 percent. The Social Democrats have come first in every Swedish election for over a century.
Between 2010 and 2022, the percentage of voters who would not choose the Sweden Democrats dropped from 79 percent to 55 percent.
In the 2010 parliamentary election, the far-right party broke into parliament and received 5.7 percent of the vote. In 2014, it won 13 percent, making it the country’s third largest party. Then, in 2018, support for the Sweden Democrats continued to build, helping the party become the third largest in the Riksdag.
For years, Sweden had two large political blocs. The center-left block brought together the Social Democrats, the Left Party and the Green Party, while the center block included the Moderates, the Christian Democrats, the Liberals and the Center Party.
Should the Sweden Democrats emerge as the second largest party on Sunday, the country’s traditional political map would undoubtedly be redrawn.
Sifo’s survey shows that the margin of support between the red alliance — the Social Democratic Party, the Left Party, the Green Party and the Center Party, and the opposing blue alliance — the Moderates, the Christian Democrats, the Liberals and the Sweden Democrats has shrunk to less than one percent from five percent already a few months ago.
It is the Sweden Democrats who are driving this change, Toivo Sjoren, head of opinion at Sifo, told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday.
ENERGY CRISIS HIGH ON THE AGENDA
Citing skyrocketing energy prices and record inflation, the ruling Social Democratic Party and the main opposition Moderate Party have recently called on the country’s public sector employees to reduce electricity consumption and save energy while ensuring basic operations.
Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson recently said that the European electricity market was seriously out of balance and that her government had proposed delinking overpriced gas from electricity prices to provide energy security for the country’s households and businesses. She said EU member states should create a broad alliance and work together to lower electricity prices.
Similar calls and promises have also been heard from the opposition parties. Ulf Kristersson, leader of the Moderates, said that even the blue alliance was ready to offer financial support to the country’s households and businesses already before the end of the year.
To this end, the current opposition parties want the Swedish electricity grid to develop a price model with a ceiling as soon as possible. However, some analysts question this tight time frame.
The results of the Sifo survey also revealed that the future looks rather bleak for the Swedish public just a few days before the parliamentary elections. In August, the percentage who considered themselves optimistic about the future fell from approximately 60 percent to approximately 40 percent, while the percentage of pessimists increased from approximately 30 percent to 40 percent.
The three main issues discussed in the local media in August were law and order, environment and energy and migration/integration. Remarkably, the economy, labor market and business policy were relegated to the back seat.
RESULT UNCERTAIN
So far, the election results are still anyone’s guess.
Andersson may well keep his job, although the conflicts within the Red Alliance at this point appear highly irreconcilable, especially when it comes to economic policy, Josefina Erikson, associate professor at the Department of Public Administration at Uppsala University, told Xinhua on Wednesday.
Political commentator Mats Knutson recently told Sveriges Television that it would be a very tough task to form a new government, and even if the Andersson-led Social Democrats won, it would still be “a nightmare” for her to form a government this fall. Even the need for a new election cannot be ruled out.
When the far-right Sweden Democrats become the second largest party, it would have “significant influence on the government policies they already have,” Erikson told Xinhua.
On the other hand, even if the Red Alliance wins, it is still difficult to form a new government, as the Left Party, also a member of the current Red Alliance, could withdraw support for the Prime Minister if it disagrees with the government. politics, she explained. ■
Photo taken on September 7, 2022 shows the Riksdagshuset in Stockholm, Sweden. (Xinhua/Fu Yiming)
A woman walks past election campaign posters in Stockholm, Sweden, on Sept. 7, 2022. (Xinhua/Fu Yiming)
People walk past election campaign posters in Stockholm, Sweden, on Sept. 7, 2022. (Xinhua/Fu Yiming)
People walk past election campaign posters in Stockholm, Sweden, on Sept. 7, 2022. (Xinhua/Fu Yiming)
A woman walks past election campaign posters in Stockholm, Sweden, on Sept. 7, 2022. (Xinhua/Fu Yiming)