I don\u2019t pretend to be a political scientist. \u00a0There are so many things about politics I can\u2019t begin to understand.\u00a0 Both Swedish and American.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t stop me from being interested in the political workings of both countries, or from having an opinion though.\u00a0 It\u2019s why I stayed up until five in the morning watching the American election results while living in Sweden.\u00a0 It\u2019s also why I found myself watching the Swedish election results online on a Sunday afternoon while in the US.<\/p>\n
So what happened? A lot. \u00a0Socialdemokraterna (the Social Democrats) continued to lose ground and will go into the new term with 17 fewer seats than 2006.\u00a0 Moderaterna (the Moderates) continued to gain ground and will enter with 10 more seats.\u00a0 Alliansen (the Alliance), the coalition led by Moderaterna will not however enter with a clear majority.\u00a0 And most notably, and, in my opinion, unfortunately, Sverigedemokraterna (the Sweden Democrats) gained enough votes to enter parliament with 20 seats.\u00a0 Sverigedemokraterna are, of course, the far rightwing party with a decidedly anti-immigration platform.<\/p>\n
That Alliansen was not able to grab a majority of the votes leaves a lot of questions to be answered.\u00a0 Moderaterna have said they will speak with Milj\u00f6partiet (the Green Party) and not negotiate with Sverigedemokraterna.\u00a0 The result of those discussions will be eagerly awaited in Sweden.<\/p>\n
But in general, Sverigedemokraterna will be making headlines in the coming days.\u00a0 Sweden suddenly finds itself with an extreme rightwing party in parliament.\u00a0 A party that made huge gains from the previous election.\u00a0 A party that continues to gain support.\u00a0 A party that as of right now has no one willing to work with them in parliament.<\/p>\n
These sorts of parties have been seen before in times of uncertainty whether that be economic uncertainty or social uncertainty.\u00a0 Most political analysts were willing to concede that Sverigedemokraterna would be voted into parliament.\u00a0 Despite this, 20 seats surprised me.\u00a0 And not the good kind.\u00a0 The extreme rightwing made the second biggest gain from 2006 to 2010 pulling in 5.7% of votes, up from 2.9% in the last election.<\/p>\n
It speaks to an underlying worry in the country.\u00a0 To concerns about social issues.\u00a0 Socioeconomic issues.\u00a0 National identity.\u00a0 Whatever the reasons, Sweden must face the issues head on.\u00a0 As of these elections, they have no choice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I don\u2019t pretend to be a political scientist. \u00a0There are so many things about politics I can\u2019t begin to understand.\u00a0 Both Swedish and American.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t stop me from being interested in the political workings of both countries, or from having an opinion though.\u00a0 It\u2019s why I stayed up until five in the morning watching…<\/p>\n