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SOCIAL DEMOCRATS IN TURMOIL

SOCIAL DEMOCRATS

An indictment of the Social Democrats?

While Mona Sahlin bears ultimate responsibility for the Social Democrats' poor electoral performance, her departure as party leader can also be seen as an indictment of a party in deadlock, writes social democratic commentator Eric Sundström.

An indictment of the Social Democrats?
Outgoing Social Democratic leader Mona Sahlin speaks at Norra Bantorget on May 1

In her 1996 book “Med mina ord” (‘In my words’) Mona Sahlin writes that she wants to offer her own view of “the way into (and out of?) politics”. But after the scandal and timeout of the mid-1990s, she started a new path which carried Swedish politics’ own “comeback kid” all the way to becoming the Social Democrats’ first female party leader.

On Sunday, Sahlin climbed into a black car after the press conference at the party’s headquarters at Sveavägen 68 in Stockholm in which she announced she was stepping down from her post.

This time, the road took her away from the hot air of politics – for good.

Sahlin was in step with the times, an assessment often used in reference to her role model, Olof Palme. She was also the first woman party secretary for the Social Democrats from 1992 – 1994, during which she fostered transparency and modernised how the party functioned.

She forced a slow-moving party to address issues such as feminism, anti-racism, structural discrimination, and LGBT rights. Concrete measures implemented during her time as sustainable development minister (2004-2006) are mentioned less frequently.

Her 2010 book, “Möjligheternas land” (‘The land of opportunity’) is characterized by a modern radicalism at a time of social democratic confusion across Europe.

But in September, the Social Democrats had their worst election since 1914. The causes were many. The confused emergence of formal cooperation within the centre-left Red-Green opposition; the lack of generational change; unclear political priorities; the inability to translate for voters the vague notion of a land of opportunity into concrete reforms.

As party leader, Sahlin bears the ultimate responsibility.

The clumsy way she handled the post-election debate created a vacuum that was filled by a pressure cooker of speculation. And the turbulence finally forced her to resign.

John F. Kennedy pointed out that the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters in Chinese. The first character stands for ‘danger’; the other for ‘opportunity’. Of course, potential can manifest itself now that the crisis of realisation has finally hit the Social Democrats.

The period up to the next extraordinary congress in March will be characterized by tough political recalculations. A strategic renewal will be conducted with experienced, key personnel still in place, but the stalwart politicians of yesteryear will be replaced with new talents. The Social Democratic party will rally around a candidate to take over as party leader who will suddenly seem obvious.

But there are also signs of danger.

For Mona Sahlin’s departure can be seen as an indictment of a deadlocked party apparatus.

Of a party that doesn’t know what it wants and isn’t thinking clearly; of a party that isn’t up to the task of choosing a political path or implementing necessary organizational reforms.

That fritters away political talents.

That doesn’t understand the seriousness of playing power politics so that no one dares to think about how former prime minister Ingvar Carlsson, or a formalist like former defence minister Thage G. Peterson, sighs when they open their morning papers at the kitchen table.

Perhaps Sahlin had a mandate to continue as long as the accusatory spotlight was only focused on her. Did her support disappear when she invited the whole party apparatus to share responsibility and resign their seats?

In the last paragraph of “Med mina ord”, Mona Sahlin leaves the Riksdag and government to the freedom anthem “Oh Freedom”. The Social Democrats seem to need the departing party leader’s advice and stability during the time leading up the next party congress.

But perhaps, when Sahlin drove off in that black car from Sveavägen 68 on Sunday, she played the song again as a foretaste,

However: When we now know that Sahlin will get her freedom in March 2011, 29 years after she entered parliament, another question comes to mind:

Who wants, can, and has the energy to lead the Social Democrats to an election victory in 2014?

Eric Sundström is the editor of the progressive news website Dagens Arena and chair of the Social Democratic Press Association (Socialdemokratiska pressföreningen).

This article was originally published in Swedish on the Dagens Arena website on Monday, November 15th. Translation by The Local.

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POLITICS

Social Democrat leader backs Sweden’s harsh new immigration policies

The leader of Sweden's Social Democrat opposition has backed the harsh new policies on crime and immigration included in the new government's programme, and even signalled openness to the much-criticised begging ban.

Social Democrat leader backs Sweden's harsh new immigration policies

In an interview with the Expressen newspaper, Magdalena Andersson said her party was absolutely agreed on the need for a stricter immigration policy for Sweden, going so far as to take credit for the Social Democrats for the illiberal shift. 

“There is absolutely no question that need a strict set of migration laws,” she told the Expressen newspaper, rejecting the claims of Sweden Democrat Jimmie Åkesson that the government’s new program represented a “paradigm shift in migration policy”. 

“The paradigm shift happened in 2015, and it was us who carried it out,” she said. “The big rearrangement of migration policy was carried out by us Social Democrats after the refugee crisis of 2015, with a thoroughgoing tightening up of the policy.” 

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She said that her party would wait and see what “concrete proposals” the new government ended up making, but she said the Social Democrats were not in principle against even the new government’s most criticised proposal: to slash the number of UN quota refugees from around 5,000 to 900. 

“That’s something we are going to look at,” she said. “It’s been at different levels at different points of time in Sweden.” 

Rather than criticise the new government for being too extreme on migration, Andersson even attacked it for not being willing to go far enough. 

The Social Democrats’ plan to tighten up labour market migration by bringing back the system of labour market testing, she said, was stricter than the plan to increase the salary threshold proposed by Ulf Kristersson’s new government.  

When it comes to the new government’s plans to bring in much tougher punishments for a string of crimes, Andersson criticised the new government for not moving fast enough. 

“What I think is important here is that there are a completed proposals for new laws already on the table which need to be put into effect,” she said. 

She also said she was not opposed to plans for a national ban on begging. 

“We Social Democrats believe that people should have the possibility to get educated, and work so they can support themselves,” she said. “That’s something we’ve believed in all along. You shouldn’t need to stand there holding your cap in your hand.” 

“It’s already possible to bring in a ban in certain municipalities today,” she continued. “So the question is really whether this should be regulated at a national or a local level. We did not decide at out national congress that it should be regulated at a national level, but when the inquiry publishes its conclusions, we will assess the advantages and disadvantages and decide on whether we will keep our position or change.” 

Where she was critical of the new government was in its failure to discuss how it would increase the budgets for municipalities and regional governments, who she said face being forced to drive through savage cuts in real spending to schools, healthcare and elderly care if they were not prioritised in the coming budget. 

“But that’s such a tiny part of this slottsavtal (“Mansion agreement”), and the government’s policy programme suggests they’ve missed something that should really be in focus for the government,” she said, warning that citizens should be braced for dramatic fall in the quality of welfare in the coming years. 

She said her party would also campaign against the new government’s plans to scrap Sweden’s goal of spending one percent of GDP on aid, and also against the new government’s plans to make it harder to build wind energy projects. 

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