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Social Democrats still ‘deeply divided’: expert

The turbulence within the Social Democrats, which climaxed at the weekend with the resignation of party head Håkan Juholt, is just the latest symptom of a party suffering from deep internal division, according to political scientist Nicholas Aylott at the Södertörn University in Stockholm.

Published: 23 January 2012 15:31 CET
Social Democrats still 'deeply divided': expert

“The Social Democrats are deeply split over a number of issues and I would argue that these differences have been aggravated by the process by which the party has chosen its previous leaders,” Aylott told The Local.

This selection process is among the things that the executive committee has spent Monday debating behind closed doors.

Unlike many other political parties, the Social Democrats delegate the task of selecting a candidate to a selection committee (valberedning), which, after having conferred behind closed doors, often select only one candidate, which they present to the party members.

According to Aylott, this process is at the root of the party’s problems.

”In the most recent leader election, this system produced a candidate who was absolutely painfully unsuitable for the job. In the end everyone suffered because of this,” Aylott said.

Click here for a photo gallery of what Stockholm residents are saying about Håkan Juholt’s resignation

When scandal upon scandal followed, it would have been much better for the party had Juholt resigned last autumn, according to Aylott.

The fact that he stayed on for as long as he did just meant that the agony was extended.

The question, according to Aylott, is whether the party will manage to turn this system around, to formulate a new and more open way of choosing their leader, closer to that of some of the other Swedish political parties.

This, he means is essential for the party to work out what it is they want, where they stand on a number of issues, and then go from there to elect the right candidate for the job.

The Swedish media is currently rife with speculation as to whom might be in the cards as the party’s next leader, while party spokespeople adamantly maintain that they are currently discussing the election process, rather than prospective candidates.

Many of those whose names are bandied about in the press have already said that they are not interested in the post as party leader.

But according to Aylott there is a tradition among the Social Democratic party to say no but accept anyway if ”the party calls”.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that many are jumping at the idea, however.

”It is a pretty unattractive position at the moment with the party struggling in the polls, it would be a herculean task for anybody,” Aylott said.

According to Aylott, a worst case scenario for the party would be if the executive committee are not able to resolve the power struggles within the party before initiating the selection process.

”If they just appoint someone to act as party leader I would suspect more trouble, because that person would not have the mandate to act on anything while the party is still undecided on where its going,” he said.

However, if the party manages to formulate their direction by holding an open selection process where candidates are able to make clear their stance and get elected on the back of this, the party may well find itself on track again.

”That person would then have a clear mandate to take the party where it wants to go,” Aylott told 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.

Published: 26 October 2022 17:05 CEST
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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