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Opposition parties to build coalition

Sweden’s opposition political parties held a Sunday afternoon press conference to announce plans for building a united coalition government following the 2010 Riksdag elections.

Published: 7 December 2008 15:19 CET
Opposition parties to build coalition

”We hope to be able to offer a just policy ahead of the 2010 election. We have been working together for a long time and are strengthened by our previous work together,” said Social Democratic party leader Mona Sahlin, according to the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper.

“Now we see a strong partnership which can take up the fight against the centre-right government.”

While the Social Democrats, Green Party, and Left Party each plan to campaign as individual parties in the run up to parliamentary elections in 2010, they have also agreed to work together to form a common governing platform.

The three parties will present a common economic policy proposal in the spring of 2010.

Previous progress on efforts by the three parties to work together had been held up by the Left Party’s refusal to accept rules governing the budget and state finances.

Sunday’s press conference indicated that the Left Party, which had been threatened with exclusion by the Social Democrats and the Greens from a future governing coalition, had made the necessary compromises to win back the confidence of the latter two parties.

“It feels really good to be able to offer an alternative to the Moderate-led government, said Left Party leader Lars Ohly, who also stressed that differences between the three parties remain, but that the disagreements no longer present an obstacle to working together.

“We aren’t changing our views but this is a price I’m prepared to pay,” said Ohly of his party’s decision to drop its opposition to maintaining a budget surplus and spending ceiling, as well as the independence of Sweden’s central bank.

The three parties said they will create five working groups before the end of the year with the goal of presenting the group’s results by the spring of 2010.

The working groups will include one focused on labour and the economy, an environmental group, a welfare group, an urban policy group designed to combat segregation, and a group tasked with managing foreign and security policy.

According to a joint statement released by the three parties, the findings of each group will also be analyzed for their effects on children and gender equity.

“Policies should stop the subordination of women and emphasize possibilities for women,” reads the statement.

“Every group will also be asked to bring forward suggestions which can combat the discrimination of people in society.”

The three parties also used Sunday’s press conference to unveil a package of measures designed to combat youth unemployment, including traineeships for public sector jobs, better job training for young people, and additional places in adult education programmes and vocational colleges.

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POLITICS

‘Very little debate’ on consequences of Sweden’s crime and migration clampdown

Sweden’s political leaders are putting the population’s well-being at risk by moving the country in a more authoritarian direction, according to a recent report.

Published: 29 April 2024 08:56 CEST
'Very little debate' on consequences of Sweden's crime and migration clampdown

The Liberties Rule of Law report shows Sweden backsliding across more areas than any other of the 19 European Union member states monitored, fuelling concerns that the country risks breaching its international human rights obligations, the report says.

“We’ve seen this regression in other countries for a number of years, such as Poland and Hungary, but now we see it also in countries like Sweden,” says John Stauffer, legal director of the human rights organisation Civil Rights Defenders, which co-authored the Swedish section of the report.

The report, compiled by independent civil liberties groups, examines six common challenges facing European Union member states.

Sweden is shown to be regressing in five of these areas: the justice system, media environment, checks and balances, enabling framework for civil society and systemic human rights issues.

The only area where Sweden has not regressed since 2022 is in its anti-corruption framework, where there has been no movement in either a positive or negative direction.

Source: Liberties Rule of Law report

As politicians scramble to combat an escalation in gang crime, laws are being rushed through with too little consideration for basic rights, according to Civil Rights Defenders.

Stauffer cites Sweden’s new stop-and-search zones as a case in point. From April 25th, police in Sweden can temporarily declare any area a “security zone” if there is deemed to be a risk of shootings or explosive attacks stemming from gang conflicts.

Once an area has received this designation, police will be able to search people and cars in the area without any concrete suspicion.

“This is definitely a piece of legislation where we see that it’s problematic from a human rights perspective,” says Stauffer, adding that it “will result in ethnic profiling and discrimination”.

Civil Rights Defenders sought to prevent the new law and will try to challenge it in the courts once it comes into force, Stauffer tells The Local in an interview for the Sweden in Focus Extra podcast. 

He also notes that victims of racial discrimination at the hands of the Swedish authorities had very little chance of getting a fair hearing as actions by the police or judiciary are “not even covered by the Discrimination Act”.

READ ALSO: ‘Civil rights groups in Sweden can fight this government’s repressive proposals’

Stauffer also expresses concerns that an ongoing migration clampdown risks splitting Sweden into a sort of A and B team, where “the government limits access to rights based on your legal basis for being in the country”.

The report says the government’s migration policies take a “divisive ‘us vs them’ approach, which threatens to increase rather than reduce existing social inequalities and exclude certain groups from becoming part of society”.

Proposals such as the introduction of a requirement for civil servants to report undocumented migrants to the authorities would increase societal mistrust and ultimately weaken the rule of law in Sweden, the report says.

The lack of opposition to the kind of surveillance measures that might previously have sparked an outcry is a major concern, says Stauffer.

Politicians’ consistent depiction of Sweden as a country in crisis “affects the public and creates support for these harsh measures”, says Stauffer. “And there is very little talk and debate about the negative consequences.”

Hear John Stauffer from Civil Rights Defender discuss the Liberties Rule of Law report in the The Local’s Sweden in Focus Extra podcast for Membership+ subscribers.

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