BY ANITA ÖSTLING
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Elections for national, regional, and
local parliaments took place here September 20. The ruling
Social Democratic party registered a historic loss of votes,
dropping from 45 percent in the 1994 elections to 36.5 percent.
The Left Party and the right-wing Christian Democrats both
posted substantial gains, while the conservative Moderate Party
headed by Carl Bildt wound up with a similar vote as four years
ago - about 22 percent.
A year ago the Social Democrats were polled at less than 30 percent. Its main contender, Bildt's conservative party, stood at a historic high of more than 30 percent.
Fearing the ouster by the conservatives, the Social Democratic government stepped up spending on social entitlements. It gave 4 billion kronor (1kronor=US$0.13) to local governments in 1997 and 8 billion in 1998, supposedly to create jobs. It also increased unemployment benefits from 75 to 80 percent of the regular wage and raised the cost of living indexes for pensions. Historically high unemployment in Sweden -now at about 8 percent - is a very hot political issue. By May 1998 the Social Democrats had regained some ground in the polls and stood at 37 percent, while the conservatives were down to 27.5.
But the election campaign did not bolster the Social Democrats, and they lost 30 of their parliamentary seats. The party leadership has now appointed a "crisis commission" to evaluate what went wrong. And members of the party's national committee are publicly criticizing the campaign and the performance of party leader Prime Minister Goran Persson. Despite this loss, the Social Democrats will stay in government. The conservatives, whose campaign called for lowering taxes, cuts in social spending, and a smaller public sector, made no headway. Two other traditional bourgeois parties, the Liberals and the Center party, also took heavy losses in the elections.
Vote registers political polarization
The elections also registered growing political
polarization. The Left Party, a remnant of the Stalinist
Communist Party, doubled its vote from 1994 to 12 percent,
becoming the third-largest party in parliament. It put forward
the campaign slogan, "Now is the time for justice," and called
for an increase in sick leave and unemployment benefits, more
public spending, no to privatization of public services and
school vouchers, a 35-hour work week, and equality for women.
Surveys after the election showed that up to 25 percent of union members voted for the Left Party, and the figures are higher among unemployed. A quarter of the young people voting for the first time also chose the Left party. At the same time the Social Democrats register lower figures among these groups than in previous elections.
Also reflecting the political polarization is the election results for the Christian Democratic Party, which gained nearly 8 percentage points and stands close behind the Left party, with just one less seat in parliament. Their campaign slogan was "A Social Market Economy for Security, Growth and New Jobs." The campaign has concentrated on a call for "restoring family values," law and order, good schools, and an allowance for women who stay home with their children.
Among the new Christian Democratic members of parliament is Mikael Oscarsson, who for the last seven years has been the chairperson of the "Yes to Life" organization, which opposes a woman's right to choose abortion. The party soft-peddled its opposition to women's right to choose during the elections, after pushing the issue hard in the early 1990s, as support for the present reproductive rights legislation is overwhelming.
Christian Democratic Party chairman Alf Svensson has demanded that Oscarsson resign his post in "Yes to Life." Putting their antiabortion stance on the back burner has caused a crisis inside the Christian Democrats. Out of the party's 42 members of parliament, 10 are members of "Yes to Life," as is the leader of their youth organization, and some are protesting the party's new stance as censorship.
The ultrarightist Sweden Democrats have also registered some gains. They won seats in seven local parliaments, most notably in the industrial town of Trollhattan where several clashes between skinheads and immigrants have taken place over the past years, including a brutal beating of a Somali man. The Sweden Democrats also won seats in Haninge, a suburb of Stockholm with a large immigrant population. The party's campaign has had two slogans: "No to immigration" and "No to the European Union."
Another feature of the elections was the relatively low turnout of voters, around 80 percent. This is down 6 percent from the latest elections and a historic low. In some of the densely immigrant-populated suburbs of the bigger cities, the turnout was less than 50 percent.
Rulers worry new gov't will be weak
The main concern now among bourgeois politicians and
commentators is that the government will be weak and that the
Social Democrats will have to rely on the Left party and the
Green party, which came out of the elections with only a small
loss. Both the Left party and the Greens demand shortening the
work week. A leading capitalist, Goran Trogen, has warned that
any change in work hours will lead to contracts between unions
and companies being annulled.
The three parties have been negotiating for a week, and the budget for 1999 is coming up for vote in parliament October 13. According to Social Democratic prime minister Goran Persson, the budget will be a test. If that works out, the three parties will then move on to other issues.
Another concern of the rulers has been Stockholm's relation to the European Union and the European Monetary Union. Both the Left and the Green parties oppose membership and favor Sweden resigning from the EU and not joining the EMU. Both demand a referendum on the EMU.
"Sweden isolating itself even more" read a headline in the conservative daily Svenska Dagbladet. The news article stated that Sweden is on a counter course to the rest of Europe. It also stated that when the prime minister meets his colleagues at the informal EU summit in Austria in a month his position will be even weaker. "He will then represent a Swedish government that can stay in power only thanks to parties who want Sweden to leave the European Union."