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Support for the opposition alliance increased by 2.9 points since June, while backing for the governing coalition dropped by 1.1 points.

A coalition of four centre-right opposition parties could form the next government in Sweden, according to a poll by Sifo. 50.5 per cent of respondents would vote for the Moderate Rally Party (M), the People’s Party Liberals (FpL), the Centre Party (C) or the Christian-Democrats (KD) in this year’s legislative election.

Current Moderate leader Fredrik Reinfeldt heads the alliance. The Moderates last formed the government from 1991 to 1993 under Carl Bildt. The next legislative election has been scheduled for Sept. 17.

Prime minister Goran Persson of the Workers’ Party - Social Democrats (S) has headed the government since 1996. 46.1 per cent of respondents would vote for the Social Democrats, the Left Party (Vp) or the Environmental Party - The Greens (MP).

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High dental costs are a sore spot for many Swedes, as other health care is mainly subsidized by the government.
Other proposals included increasing unemployment benefits, making kindergarten and child care centers cheaper and spending 1% of gross domestic product on sponsoring scientific research.
Persson also said the government would meet a previous promise to bring unemployment down to 4%, from the current level of 6.3%.
"I don't see that as a big challenge right now," Persson said. "Rather, we should continue down to 3%."
Main opposition leader Fredrik Reinfeldt was quick to criticize the platform, saying offering better unemployment benefits was the wrong way to bring people into the work force.
"This makes it even more profitable to not work," Reinfeldt told news agency TT.

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[ 19 August 2006: Message edited by: Wilf Day ]

At the end of the day neo-liberalism is the same as neo-conservativism. Too bad so many "progressive" Canadians don't get it and still think the Liberals care for "da little guy".

[ 19 August 2006: Message edited by: a lonely worker ]

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Originally posted by a lonely worker:
Notice that whenever a country has a truly social deomcratic party as a serious force, the "progressive" Liberal party can always be counted on to prop up the corporate right wing.

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[ 22 August 2006: Message edited by: Wilf Day ]

The relatively innocuous and meaningless comments of the opposition political figure on foreign policy don't really seem to offer a reason.

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Originally posted by Ken Burch:
Did the Swedish economy suddenly go into a drastic downturn?

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That the conservative Alliance has made headway in the polls confounds the received political wisdom that a good economy will reflect in the polls; Sweden’s economy grew by 5.5 percent in the second quarter, something the ruling Social Democrats are quick to claim credit for.

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one in five Swedes of working age is outside the regular labour market, and one out of every four people under 25 is jobless.

As for the solutions to unemployment, the Alliance wants to cut both benefits and the taxes on working.

According to the opposition’s plans, people who have been unemployed for over 200 days will have their unemployment benefit reduced to 70 percent of their former salary, as opposed to 80 percent today. The party also aims to cut taxes for people in low-paid jobs.

The Alliance has agreed to sell the state’s stake in companies including Telia, Nordea, and stock-exchange owner OMX. The proceeds would be used to pay off some of the national debt, and Littorin insists that the sale policy “is less ideological than it used to be.”

One firm not up for sale – whoever wins the election – is alcohol sales monopoly Systembolaget.

Rather cheekily borrowing a moniker from the Social Democratic Workers’ Party (as the governing party is officially known), the Moderates have started referring to themselves in campaign posters as ‘Sweden’s new Workers’ Party’. “This is in contrast to the Social Democrats – the Swedish unemployment benefit party,” as Littorin puts it.

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[ 26 August 2006: Message edited by: Wilf Day ]

The Swedes slid to the right after 40 years of socialism before. They won't stop off for long.

[ 26 August 2006: Message edited by: Fidel ]

It's funny how people still act as though the Swedish model exists when one of its architects, Rudolf Meidner, noted the collapse of it long long ago.

Swedish-style socialism is inconsistent with neoliberalism and the Swedish Social Democrats have adopted it.

[ 26 August 2006: Message edited by: Lord Palmerston ]

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Sweden’s governing coalition holds a slim advantage before next month’s legislative election in the Scandinavian country, according to a poll by Ruab published in Dagens Industri. 49.6 per cent of respondents would support the Workers’ Party - Social Democrats (S), the Left Party (Vp) or the Environmental Party - The Greens (MP) in the ballot.

A coalition of four centre-right opposition parties—the Moderate Rally Party (M), the People’s Party Liberals (FpL), the Centre Party (C) or the Christian-Democrats (KD)—is second with 47.9 per cent.

Polling Data

Which party would you have voted for if there had been a general election today?

Governing Coalition (Centre-Left) 49.6%

Workers’ Party - Social-Democrats (S) 40.4%

Left Party (Vp)4.6%

Environmental Party - The Greens (MP) 4.6%

Opposition Alliance (Centre-Right) 47.9%

Moderate Rally Party (M)29.1%

People’s Party Liberals (FpL) 8.7%

Centre Party (C)5.1%

Christian-Democrats (KD) 5.0%

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Originally posted by a lonely worker:
Left Party (Vp)4.6%
Environmental Party - The Greens (MP) 4.6%

This race is tightening.

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"" ... the picture looks a lot less rosy to the opposition, which points out that while the official jobless rate in June was 6.3 per cent, credible non-partisan critics believe this is a sizeable understatement.

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Originally posted by Lord Palmerston:
Sweden hasn't been the "socialist" paradise that Fidel claims it is for many years. The corporatist structures of Sweden collapsed 15 years ago (at least).

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The Scandinavians still plow about a third of GDP back into social programs, Lord. Do you know what it is here?.

The Swede's still have free university tuition and spend more of their public health dollars on public health care delivery than Canada or Britain.

Not socialist?. My, and the Swedes have lower mortality and lower child poverty rates than the most politically conservative first world nations to prove it, too.

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Originally posted by Fidel:

The Scandinavians still plow about a third of GDP back into social programs, Lord. Do you know what it is here?.

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they also have private health care that operates outside of the system - when it comes to health care, canada is more socialist than Sweden.

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Actually Stockholm your information is quite out of date and inaccurate:

Voters reject private hospitals in Sweden

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Last summer, the Canadian media was awash with stories about how the socialist Swedes had supposedly turned their back on public ownership. Most notably, they were said to be selling their major public hospitals to corporations. Not surprisingly, researchers associated with right-wing think tanks were quick to jump on the story. After all, with Sweden's history of international business success and socialist government, it is associated with all things both efficient and egalitarian. If for-profit hospitals work there, why can't they work in Canada?

Many of the press accounts from last summer regrettably confused Swedish with socialist. Most stories featured the decision of Stockholm County Council to turn over operation of St. Goeran's hospital to a private firm and to contract-out an increasing volume of care to other private facilities. However, few of the stories noted that Stockholm County was governed by a coalition of parties led by the Moderates (Sweden's equivalent of our Alliance party). Shut out of power nationally and in most local councils, the Moderates chose to use their position in Stockholm, where they won control of both the county and city councils, to showcase their agenda of public restraint and privatization.

Far from turning their back on public provision, socialists vigorously opposed the "Stockholm agenda.

So how has the Stockholm County experiment turned out? The financial world has certainly not been impressed by the Moderate-led council. Standard and Poor's lowered Stockholm County's debt rating last fall. In terms of patient care, there have also been worrying signs. There have been allegations that the private hospitals and clinics in Stockholm are pre-disposed to cream-skimming, making it more difficult for seriously ill patients to get care.

For example, on September 5th, the pro-business Svenska Dagbladet published an opinion piece co-authored by one of Sweden's leading heart specialists. The piece states that Stockholm County's decision to favour private care has placed the health of cardiac patients in jeopardy. Unlike the public hospitals, which treat patients regardless of their condition, the private sector will not handle the most seriously ill patients. Having chosen to divert funding from the public to the private sector, the Moderate-led County Council turned logic on its head. Spaces have been created by for-profit firms to treat patients least in need of care, who now receive speedier treatment. Meanwhile, those most in need of care face longer waits, as the public hospitals no longer have the funds to work at full capacity. In short, the authors assert that the ability of medical opinion to set treatment priorities has been seriously undermined.

Politically the decision has turned out even worse for the Moderates. Far from attracting voters with their Stockholm showcase, the party suffered its worst performance since 1973 in the September 15th election. Meanwhile the Social Democrats strengthened their grip on power at the national level and ousted the Moderates and their allies from control of both Stockholm County and Stockholm City Councils.

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It appears that someone working for the Liberal Party (it seems Liberals are the same everywhere!) has numerous times hacked into the Social Democrats' computer network getting information about their election planning.

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It now appears that a reporter of a tabloid has just been caught as well doing the same:

Expressen reporter accessed party network

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An Expressen reporter has been suspended after it emerged that he had accessed the Social Democrats' internal network, Sapnet.

Niklas Svensson, a political reporter for the Swedish tabloid, first got hold of the log-in information in March and since then had logged in three times, most recently in August.

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Any bets on the political slant of this tabloid?

Narrow win for Swedish opposition

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Moderate party leader Fredrik Reinfeldt declared victory as near-complete results gave him a 1% lead.

Minutes later, Prime Minister Goran Persson conceded victory and said he and the government would resign, ending 12 years of Social Democrat rule.

"We have lost the election but we are not a beaten party," he said. "We will never accept the right's change of system - we will hit back!"

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Here's the election web-site:

Swedish Election commission

Obviously this is not good news but with only a 1 point lead, the Socialist vote did not collapse as was predicted.

In Germany. the right won a similarily slim victory and Merkel's numbers continue to drop. Her home state today decimated her CDU party in their elections. (The SPD and Left Party dominated).

With 5782 of 5783 districts counted:
Moderates 97 (up 42)
Centerparty 29 (up 7)
Liberal People's Party 28 (down 20)
Christiandemocrats 24 (down 9)
Total 178

Socialdemocrats 130 (down 14)
Leftparty 22 (down 8)
Greens 19 (up 2)
Total 171

[ 17 September 2006: Message edited by: Wilf Day ]

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Originally posted by Lord Palmerston:

I think you should look into the qualitative changes in social spending over the last 20 years Fidel. Numbers/GDP figures don't tell you everything.

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My god, while our Libranos were stealing $40 billion dollars from the Canadian workers fund and creating flexible labour markets here, out of work Swedes were on the dole for up to five years of their last job and accessing job training programs up the wazoo.

While our centre-right Libranos were ripping off post-secondary education to the tune of $5 billion a year, the Swedes did swing a bit to the right, for sure. Swedish youth are now expected to pay some of the cost of living while studying at university. Tuition is still free, and access to higher ed is freely accessable in ALL of the Scandinavian countries ranking ahead of Britain and Canada and Japan for economic competitiveness.

Even the very conservative Economist news journal admits that the social welfare beast in Scandinavia is well-fed. And with Denmark and Austria zagging away from the experiment in "flexible" labour, economists have had to admit there is an alternative to low wage capitalism. There was a good article by Jim Stanford on how Sweden and Austria stand apart from the western world on these issues.

And someone here is full of it. I won't name names - you know who you are. As a percentage of public health care dollars spent on private health care services, Canada spends a larger share of total than Sweden does. I corrected that poster several months ago on this, but his insistence on repeating bullshit leaves me flabbergasted. He's all jaw with no facts or sources. Yes, Sweden is further to the right than N. Korea perhaps. By comparison, N. Korea has actually swung harder to the right since the beginning of Kim Jong-Il's military dictatorship.

[ 17 September 2006: Message edited by: Fidel ]

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The Right has a seven-seat majority:

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Shit!!

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And someone here is full of it. I won't name names - you know who you are. As a percentage of public health care dollars spent on private health care services, Canada spends a larger share of total than Sweden does.

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If you are referring to me, I was simply reiterating the FACT that in Swedeen you have to pay a user fee to see a doctor and there is a two tiered system with a parallel private system that allows people with money and private insurance to pay more to get faster service.

but also, cash involved at every stage of healthcare; costs me 22 euros cash every visit to the GP

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Whereas Bildt’s moderate party pushed a systems change through privatizations, lower taxes, and reduced public sector undertakings, Reinfeldt’s new moderates promise to fulfill the failed promises of the welfare state rather than change it.
Many of the much debated authorities in the Swedish welfare state, such as the central authority for the labor market, will be kept intact. In the shared political program of the alliance no real change is advertised. On the contrary, Reinfeldt has publicly announced that he will not make any changes of the welfare system. As a matter of fact, many high income earners may have to face increased taxes as a result of the alliance’s political agenda.
The systems change is thus on the margin rather than being a “major shake-up.” Reinfeldt has sought mandate to administer the existing system, not to change it.
It is interesting to note that this historic defeat of the social democrats has resulted from one of the greatest conversions of a party throughout Swedish democratic history. Reinfeldt and his new moderates have consciously and purposefully tried to get as close as possible to the social democratic party’s politics in order to gain power. The election campaign was lined with a number of public announcements of the moderate party reconsidering core points of its earlier critique of the social democratic welfare state.
The defeat of Goran Persson is not a defeat of the Swedish welfare state model, even though Persson claims the alliance government will effectuate a systems change. It rather seems to be a defeat of the old and seemingly tired social democratic party and the win of a new, in many respects identical, social democratic party: the new moderates.
Even though the social democratic party suffers its greatest loss ever, it should be noted that it still enjoys support of 35% of voters and the support for the welfare state it has created is unanimous in the Swedish Riksdag parliament. Of the represented seven parties there are none offering or advocating an alternative view. As The Independent states, Reinfeldt was throughout the election campaign “careful not to challenge the fundamentals of the welfare state.”
The interesting point in this election has, it would seem, nothing to do with a systems change. What is interesting is that the formerly clear-cut opposition party has reconsidered and now fully embraces the welfare state system, which has caused the middle ground in Swedish politics to quite radically shift to the left. When the moderate party shifted to the left, passing a couple of its collaboration parties in the alliance while doing so, and attracted voters in the political middle grounds, the center consequently shifted leftwards forcing the social democrats further left.
Despite this dramatic change for a political party and Swedish party politics, the result is only a marginal win for the center-right alliance. The result of the election is in effect close to an ideological status quo as the September 17 win of the alliance provides a majority for the four parties of only seven seats out of the parliament’s total of 349. It would seem voters had no interest in a change of system or even changing the system, but merely called for a change of people in government.

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Originally posted by Fidel:
Even the very conservative Economist news journal admits that the social welfare beast in Scandinavia is well-fed. And with Denmark and Austria zagging away from the experiment in "flexible" labour, economists have had to admit there is an alternative to low wage capitalism. There was a good article by Jim Stanford on how Sweden and Austria stand apart from the western world on these issues.
[ 17 September 2006: Message edited by: Fidel ]

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