Swedes Veer Right to Recast Welfare State.

[Matilda]

Sweden swept away 12 years of centre-left government on Sunday in favour of a conservative
candidate who has pledged to revise the welfare state.

With almost all of the votes counted three hours after the polls closed, the right-of-centre
coalition led by the leader of the Moderate Party, Fredrik Reinfeldt, had taken 48.1 per cent of
the vote, compared with 46.2 per cent for the Social Democrats and their left-of-centre allies.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/swedes-veer-right-to-recast-welfare-state/2006/09/18/1158431644433.html


I always thought the Swedes, in their sensible way, had a pretty good balance, and their economy
is strong as far as I know. I'm certainly no expert though - is there anybody out there with a
good knowledge of Sweden who knows what's going on there?

[cliss]

1. Well, I voted in this election and

I think I know what happened. Sweden's economy is being battered right now. They have a very large, very costly social safety net. This net is being tested by a lot of immigrants right now, and the Swedes are trying to figure out how to deal with it.

I don't really have very much against the immigrants; it's just that with the 1st generation of immigrants, there's going to be more expense with getting people integrated into society, there will be costs involved. You might have to wait 1 or 2 generations for those expenses to be recouped. In the meantime, you have ordinary Swedes hurting financially....

I believe the swing to the right means = we're frustrated with things as they are, and we're going to restrict a lot of things, they're going to start tightening the reins. If they had voted for the Socialdemokraterna, it would have been an endorsement for the Status Quo. And that's not what we're seeing so....

Better get ready for some changes.

Eller vad säger någon annan? Jag tror att detta är den riktiga uppfattningen.:smoke:

[darkism]

2. This election was decided by unemployment.

The so-called "centre-right alliance" ran a hefty part of their campaign accusing Socialdemokraterna (the left government) of perpetuating Swedish unemployment.

However, it's also important to keep in mind that most Swedish right-wingers are still to the left of American Democrats. The socialist/capitalist welfare state that has made the nation great isn't going anywhere; it's too ingrained into Swedish society. And, if the people don't like it the new coalition government, they'll vote it out when the next election rolls around - unlike ours, Swedish elections are legitimate.

The real tragedy of this election, though, is that Piratpartiet didn't pick up any seats.

Keep the faith and don't be too alarmed. While not ideal, "centre-right" rule in Sweden won't be nearly as bad as the complete ultra-right-wing dictatorship we have here in the USA.

För Sverige, i tiden.

[flamingyouth]

3. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2516147