Swedish election campaigns 2010. Left, the center–right Alliance: “Forward or backward?” Middle, the Green Party: “If you don’t know what to vote for, vote for the environment!” Right, the Social Democrats: “207,000 young people long to show their potential.”
Spent yesterday doing research on political parties in Sweden. In September Sweden.se will focus on the upcoming election (September 19) by covering Swedish politics and Swedish society in general, so I’m preparing some relevant content. Among other things, David Wiles will make a brilliant summary of what the main parties in Sweden stand for.
Looking at the Swedish Election Authority website (Valmyndigheten), I was baffled by the number of parties registered in Sweden: 768! Funny, then, that the seven parties now in parliament (the Moderates, the Liberals, the Center Party, the Christian Democrats, the Social Democrats, the Green Party and the Left Party) are all so similar that it’s really difficult to know which one to vote for.
Over the last few years, all Swedish parties seem to have moved toward the center of the political scale. And to make matters even worse, the four center–right parties (the Moderates, the Liberals, the Center Party and the Christian Democrats) and the three center–left parties (the Social Democrats, the Green Party and the Left Party) have formed coalitions. In other words, even if you manage to choose one party to vote for, you’ll still end up with a coalition government built on political compromises. It’s a tough job exercising ones democratic right.
You’re probably still wondering about what the other 761 parties are. Well, among them are many local one-issue parties, started by an individual or a group of individuals with a very particular cause. The local party SOS Tomelilla wants to save the small town of Tomelilla from collapse. The national party Enhet (Unity) aims to “introduce loving visions into the politics in order to create a more human society.” Just to give you two examples.
Who knows, maybe it’s time to go crazy and vote for something like Jongleringspartiet (the Juggling Party), which strives for more juggling in society whenever and wherever possible, just to show that we need new life in Swedish politics, with parties that actually differ from one another. And why not throw in a leader with some charisma as well? /Emma
The Juggling Party: “Do you think that the other parties just talk rather than juggle? Vote for the Juggling Party!”
