11/23/2018
See also: The Sweden Democrats — Alone Against Establishment Extremists, September 20, 2010
Sweden is fascinating for anyone who wants to rescue Western civilization because, of all the countries in Western Europe, it has let itself go so far down the road of destroying civilization within its own borders. Although the insurgent immigration patriot Sweden Democrats took a record 17.6% of the vote in the September 9 general election, this was less than a lot of people had predicted. But now it appears it may have been enough to make Sweden ungovernable. Indicative of the psychological stress Swedish Leftists are under: a government minister’s extraordinary personal attack on visiting Canadian Alt Lite guru Jordan B. Peterson — resulting his latest book becoming a best-seller in Sweden although no Swedish translation is available.
No country in Western Europe is as strangled by Political Correctness as Sweden. No country in Western Europe has a “managed democracy” as much as Sweden, with its non-secret ballots and decades of unchallenged socialist rule. No country in Western Europe has taken so many young, male Muslim “refugees” per capita as Sweden, with its Islamic “no-go zones,” rape wave, and swelling population. This combination of national brainwashing and fear appears to be why it has taken so long — compared to in Norway or Denmark — for the “far right” to make any serious breakthrough in parliamentary elections.
Although arguably a disappointment, Sweden Democrats’ 17.6% vote share translates, due the system of regional proportional representation lists, into the same percentage of seats in the Riksdag [=Parliament]. This means that it is impossible for either the Rightist bloc of parties (“The Alliance”) or the Leftist bloc (“Red-Greens”) to form a government without the support either of each other or of the only group which cares about immigration and the future of Sweden: Sweden Democrats.
All other parties insisted, during the election campaign, that they would never work with the Sweden Democrats. But the party’s support level means that this noble promise simply cannot be kept.
In the wake of the election, the leader of the minority Social Democrat government, Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, the burly ex-construction worker who let a column of Islamic rapists and petty criminals into Sweden in 2015, stubbornly refused to step down — technically a legitimate move as, although his party’s support was at its lowest ever with 28% of the poll, it was still the largest party. Löfven attempted to cobble together a multi-party coalition, including the (sort of conservative) Moderate Party (who got 19.8%, a significant decrease), the Centre Party and the Liberals, propped up by the (essentially Communist) Left Party. However, the Stalinists would not work with the right. At the end of September, Löfven lost a vote of confidence in the Riksdag and the Prime Minister who (finally, it seemed) despatched [Swedish prime minister ousted after losing confidence vote, by John Henley, Guardian, September 25, 2018] though he has refused to stand down as Social Democrat leader.
On October 2nd, the speaker of the Riksdag asked Ulf Kristersson, the Moderate Party leader who has never done anything outside politics in his life, to see if he could form a government, his party having garnered 19% of the vote, a significant decrease on the previous election. But Kristersson had gone into the election pledging to create a Moderate-Centre-Liberal coalition. This could only govern with the support of the Social Democrats, which he would not have, or of the Sweden Democrats, which the Liberal and Centre would not tolerate. So, on October 14th he threw in the towel. [Ulf Kristersson ger upp försöket att bilda regering, by Viviana Canoilas, DN, October 14, 2018]
On October 15th, the ball was back with Social Democrat leader Löfven but, politically wounded, he couldn’t form a government.
Plunged into national crisis, the speaker, the Moderate Party’s Andreas Norlén, who happens to have a doctorate in Law, took things into his own hands. On 5th November, he announced that he was designating Kristersson as Prime Minister and that he would lead a minority government composed of the Moderates and Christian Democrats, who, though small, had markedly increased their vote.
On 14th November, the new government was put before parliament and for the first time in Swedish history the proposed government was rejected. [Swedish parliament rejects centre-right PM candidate Ulf Kristersson, by Emma Löfgren, The Local, November 14, 2018] Reason: it was obvious to everyone that the government would have to be propped up by the Sweden Democrats, leading to the Leftists parties voting it down along with the Centre Party.
In desperation, the Centre Party leader, 35-year-old career politician Annie Lööf, whose party garnered just 8.6% of the vote, was given the chance to try to stitch together a centrist government that excluded both the Left Party and the Sweden Democrats, difficult in that the Moderate Party stood on a platform of not working with the Social Democrats. The deadline was reached on 22nd November and Lööf announced, unsurprisingly, that she couldn’t form a government. [Sweden’s Centre Party leader abandons bid to break political deadlock, The Local, November 22, 2018]
The pressure is on. The Speaker has three only more chances at a Riksdag vote on a new government before there must be another election. Estimates are the Sweden Democrat vote will rise to 19%, the same as will be that of the Moderates [Sverigedemokraterna forbi Moderaterna på meningsmåling, by Christian Skaug, Document, November 19, 2018] while the Liberals will score below the 4% threshold to stay in parliament. [Liberaler på hal is om det blir extraval, SVN, November 16, 2018] That will make it even more difficult to lock the Sweden Democrats out of power.
Enter Jordan Peterson, on a speaking tour in Stockholm in early November. Peterson has claimed, correctly, that stable marriages are, psychologically, the best means of bringing up well-adapted children. On 7th November, Margot Wallström, the Social Democrat Swedish Foreign Minister in Stefan Löfven’s out-going government publicly declared that Peterson should, “crawl back under the rock he came from”. [“Crawl back under your rock,” Swedish foreign minister tells Canadian professor Jordan B Peterson, The Local, November 8, 2018] Perhaps significantly, however, Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life, which very cautiously advocates a return to a traditional way of doing things, promptly became the bestselling book in Sweden. [Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson’s book is a hit in Sweden — even though FM loathes him, RT, November 13, 2018]
Peterson’s “rules,” of course, include many which are rather alien to the Left, such as “Be precise in your speech” and “Tell the Truth.”
The Sweden Democrats’ slightly disappointing election result has nevertheless brought into stark relief two fault lines in Swedish society: between the Sweden Democrats and all the other parties; and between ordinary Swedes and the (often relatively young) career politicians who get elected to the Riksdag.
If current trends continue, there will be no government in Sweden until the mainstream parties are prepared to work with the Sweden Democrats. Indeed, according to polls voters for the center-right “Alliance” would already prefer an Alliance-Sweden Democrat coalition than anything involving the “Red-Green” Leftist parties. [Will old Swedish parties destroy their political system just to stop anti-migrant Sweden Democrats? by Igor Ogorodnev, RT, November 15, 2018]
The likeliest outcome, eventually, will be what happened in Finland in 2011: an (almost) all-party coalition with the Sweden Democrats in opposition. Sweden Democrat support will then continue to grow until they are invited into the government.
But this has its risks. The True Finns entered Finland’s government in 2015. But then, rather than bring down the government over the Centre Party Prime Minister Juha Sipila’s insistence — against all election promises — on allowing in thousands of “refugees,” the party did nothing at all. True Finns’ members were so furious that its leader, the Foreign Minister Timo Soini, was displaced by a hardliner, Dr Jussi Halla-Aho, with whom the other parties in the government coalition would not work. The party split in two [True Finns split holds lesson for Europe’s populists, by Richard Milne, Financial Times, June 16, 2017] with 18 of its 38 MPs — including all those with government positions — breaking away to create “Blue Reform.”
The Sweden Democrats, therefore, need to be very careful not to compromise their principles if they enter government. Better to have de facto power without the salary and trappings than to sell yourself out like the True Finns ministers did.
Harri Honkanen is a student of Scandinavia.
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