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REINFELDT

Poll: Alliance retains solid lead

The four Alliance parties retained the support of voters and lead over the red-greens with 4.6 percentage points, according to the latest voter poll by Novus Opinion.

Published: 1 September 2010 07:28 CEST

The four parties polled a total 49 percent, a slight rise from 48.9 percent in the previous poll. The Moderates, Liberal Party and Centre Party all increased while the Christian Democrats declined by 1.2 points.

The Social Democrats remained at last week’s level of 30.3 percent with the Green Party and Left Party dropping 0.1 points apiece. The three party coalition polled a total of 44.4 percent.

The far-right Sweden Democrats polled 4.7 percent, the same result as last week and sufficient to claim seats in parliament if the election were to be held today.

“Both the blocs are doing what they can to see that the political debate is conducted in their own backyard,” Novus Opinion wrote in a statement.

The Red-Greens presented their joint election manifesto on Tuesday with Social Democrat leader Mona Sahlin arguing that the differences are not about spending, but about values.

“With today’s (Tuesday’s) election manifesto from the opposition, the Red-Greens hope that the discussion will be moved to quality within welfare services and to equity issues. While the Alliance wants the discussion to focus on jobs, taxes and the economy.”

The difference between the blocs is categorised as statistically significant. The Novus Opinion poll is undertaken on behalf of the TV4 Nyheterna news programme.

The Novus Opinion/TV4 Nyheterna poll is one of the larger polls carried out in Sweden and is undertaken monthly.

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OFFBEAT

Swedish teen hits gold with love tweets to PM

A perky Swedish schoolgirl with a wry sense of humour has suddenly found herself with thousands of fans fascinated with details of her fictional crush on Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, making her our pick for Swede of the Week.

Published: 12 September 2013 13:50 CEST

“Imagine you and Reinfeldt sending silly snapchats to eachother ♡,” reads the maiden tweet from the @imaginreinfeldt Twitter account.

The tweet is accompanied with a picture of the Swedish prime minister in profile, a finger on his nose as he stares at a microphone, apparently deep in thought.

 

 

Since taking its place in the twittosphere on the evening of September 8th, a mere four days ago at time of writing, the account has attracted more than 3,200 followers, much to the surprise of its creator, 14-year-old Ebba.

“The response has been great fun. It's great to know that I'm able to make people laugh,” she says.

When contacted by The Local on her mobile phone, Ebba is in gym class, huffing along on a run with her fellow sixth graders in Hallen, a community of 200 residents on the shores of Storsjön lake in Åre municipality in northern Sweden.

“I really never imagined this would attract any attention. I did it because I thought it was fun,” she explains when asked about the Twitter account.

 

 

Ebba says she first began to reflect on the gold mine of humour hidden beneath the prime minister's austere exterior when she was 11-years-old, around the time of Sweden's last general election when Reinfeldt and his government earned a second term in office.

“He has this appearance that is somewhat serious. But I think he looks a lot like a puppy dog,” she says.

“I've always thought he's sort of an amusing guy who is easy to make fun of.”

 

 

Over the past couple of years, Ebba, a girl with a “special sense of humour who likes to joke about inappropriate topics” offered up a range of Reinfeldt-inspired quips to her friends on Facebook and Twitter.

Seeing Reinfeldt's face plastered on the television and the front pages of newspapers during last week's visit of US President Barack Obama prompted Ebba to think anew about the next step in her ever-evolving Reinfeldt joke meme.

“I'd gotten a lot of positive responses to my postings on social media,” she explains.

“And I had all these ideas of imagining Reinfeldt in different made-up scenes, so I decided to launch an entire Twitter account dedicated to the joke of having a crush on Reinfeldt.”

 

 

Ebba, who is currently single, emphasizes that flirtatious Twitter account is “totally made up” and that she in no way harbours feelings for Reinfeldt, who finalized his divorce from his wife Filippa in February 2013 after two decades of marriage.

Nor does she harbour any political leanings of her own.

“I'm not into politics. I don't have any real political opinions of my own. The account is meant to be totally neutral,” she says.

All the @imaginreinfeldt tweets are written in English, Ebba says, for the simple fact that “everything sounds much funnier in English”.

While Ebba has yet to meet Reinfeldt face-to-face, she knows exactly what she'd do should the opportunity arise.

“I'd simply tell him he's really lovely,” she says.

“And then I'd give him a big hug.”

Editor's Note: The Local's Swede of the Week is someone in the news who – for good or ill – has revealed something interesting about the country. Being selected as Swede of the Week is not necessarily an endorsement.

SEE ALSO: A list of The Local's past Swedes of the Week

David Landes

Follow David Landes on Twitter

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