söndag 14 september 2014

The mixed bag of the 2014 election

The results are in, and though the counting continues, it's official: the Alliance has lost its majority. After eight years, neoliberalism in Sweden has been cast out on its ear... for now. Now-former Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt will be resigning as party leader of the Moderates (the dominant party of the Alliance) next spring; very few anywhere left of center are sorry to see him go.

The Alliance's loss, however, did not translate into a gain for the center-left Red/Green bloc. Overall, the Alliance lost a total of 31 mandates (the Moderates alone lost 25), but the Social Democrats and Left party only gained 1 and 2 mandates respectively. The third party of the block, the Environment Party Greens, also lost a mandate.

The other 29 mandates that switched hands in this election went to the far-right Sweden Democrats party - the front of respectability for the Swedish neofascist movement. In effect, SD more than doubled their gains of the 2010 election, when they first entered the Riksdag with 20 mandates.

This development is all the more troubling because the Red/Green bloc is unable to form a majority government on its own, having received less than 50% of the overall vote. As a coalition with SD is (as most hope) out of the question, this means there will have to be some measure of collaboration with the more centrist elements of the Alliance. Though the parliamentary left in Sweden has not been a force for real change for a long time, this situation is likely to lead to even the feeblest of reforms having a tough time getting enacted.

There was one other party in the election that made major gains over its 2010 results - Feminist Initiative. They are a radical party on the far left and would have made a welcome addition to the Riksdag, making it easier for the Red/Greens to form a government. Unfortunately, they did not receive enough votes to pass the 4% bar and are thus on the sidelines again.

Their improved performance this year (3.1%, up from less than 1% in 2010), however, is an indicator that the political polarization in Swedish society is not completely one-sided. There is still space for a radical left in Sweden; activists and revolutionaries must take every opportunity available to agitate and organize to build it up. It is the only way we can hope to challenge and ultimately defeat the nascent far right here.

One first step is being taken: a demonstration has been called for 5:00 this afternoon outside the Riksdag building to protest the SD. I sincerely hope is it larger and louder than the demonstration against the SvP three weeks ago. It will be a good way to estimate the strength of the movement in numbers, and give us the opportunity to build the networks we need to carry this movement forward.

The spirit of resistance was also on display last night during the election watch parties being hosted around Stockholm. Continuous live coverage was provided by Channel 1 from each location, so all the parties could see what the others were doing; as SD party leader Jimmie Åkesson took the stage to celebrate becoming the third biggest party in the Riksdag, the cameras cut to the Left Party event, where the entire room was facing the screen and chanting "No racists in our streets!" and letting a few select fingers also do the talking. As long as we still have that, we'll have the strength to fight back.

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