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POLITICS

Poll results point to ‘very exciting’ 2014 election

While the latest Statistics Sweden (SCB) opinion poll contained few surprises, the results point to the possibility of new political constellations following the 2014 parliamentary elections.

Published: 4 June 2013 11:48 CEST
Poll results point to 'very exciting' 2014 election

Sweden’s centre-left opposition parties now have enough support for a majority according to the latest Political Party Preference Survey, while combined support for the centre-right Alliance coalition has fallen to just over 40 percent.

The Moderates find themselves with the support of 26.9 percent of the electorate, while the Social Democrats’ support has climbed to 35.6 percent.

Despite the poll lift, Social Democrat party secretary Carin Jämtin cautioned the party “won’t be satisfied” until it wins the 2014 election.

“We need to win the election, then we can create more jobs and better education in Sweden,” she told the TT news agency.

Her counterpart with the Moderate Party, Kent Persson, was unhappy with the poll results.

“It shows that we have more to do. We need to be more clear in describing what our policies mean for people in their daily lives,” he said.

However, a majority from either bloc is far from certain, according to political scientist Nicholas Aylott at Södertörn University in Stockholm, as the Sweden Democrats continue to poll strongly, registering voter support of 7.7 percent in the latest Statistic Sweden survey.

“The results suggest that the Sweden Democrats will likely maintain their current representation in parliament and it’s quite plausible that could end up depriving either bloc of achieving a majority,” he told The Local.

While Aylott emphasized that “the battle lines have been drawn” ahead of the 2014 elections and the Alliance will once again campaign as a coalition, recent signals sent by the Social Democrats and the Liberals suggest that Sweden’s next government could look considerably different than it does today.

“After the election, all bets are off,” he explained.

“Depending on the result, there may be considerable pressure on some of the parties on the centre-right to make a deal with the Social Democrats.”

Aylott referred to recent signals sent from the Liberal Party, including European Affairs Minister Birgitta Ohlsson’s recent suggestion that the Green Party could be invited to join a centre-right coaltion, as well as a joint opinion article on tax reforms co-authored by the party’s youth wing and that of the Social Democrats.

“I wonder very much if all of this is purely coincidental,” he said.

“In some post-election scenarios, the pressure on the Social Democrats and the Liberals could be quite intense.”

Aylott said the new poll results confirm that Sweden is in for a “very exciting” election in 2014.

“You see that very small differences in outcomes could have a very large impact in terms of different political scenarios,” he explained.

Not only could many Christian Democrats lose their representation in parliament, depriving the Moderates of a key coalition partner, but it appears the Social Democrats are set to return to their traditional role at the heart of Swedish politics.

“The Social Democrats’ traditional strength has been their ability to co-opt smaller parties on the right into making a deal while at the same time being able to rely on support from the left,” Aylott explained.

“In recent elections they lost this strategic pivot position, but if they are able to recapture it in the next election, that will return them to that power position.”

Aylott cautioned, however, that the next elections are more than a year away, and a lot can happen before then.

“It’s hard to say how much pressure or exactly on which parties that pressure will fall” to cut a deal across traditional ideological lines.

David Landes

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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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