LIVE UPDATES: Swedish ‘Right-Wing’ Set For Major Gains Against Establishment In Elections

The Rational Times
Sep 8, 2018 · 6 min read

On Sunday, Sweden will hold a new national election for a new parliament (Riksdag), which itself will create a new government. Since 2014, a coalition government of the Social Democrats (S) and the Green Party (MP) has ruled the country, headed by prime minister Stefan Löfven.

Sweden Democrats’ (SD) leader Jimmie Åkesson (right), Social Democrats’ (S) and Swedish prime minister Stefan Löfven (centre) and the Moderate Party’s (M) leader Ulf Kristersson. (PHOTO: The Rational Times)

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September 10, 10:45: Social Democrats’ Worst Election Ever, But Better Than Expected

On the morning of Monday, Aftonbladet’s Peter Kadhammar already had labeled Stefan Löfven as “history’s greatest loser who became a victor”.

In 2014, the Social Democrats (S) garnered 31% of the votes, which means that the party has made a huge dive with its 2018 projected 28.4%. That is the worst result since 1911–107 years ago — when the party got 28.5% of the vote.

Back in the 1950s and 1960s, the Social Democrats used to solemnly get 40–50% of all votes.

“We do not mourn, we organize ourselves,” S leader and current prime minister Stefan Löfven said in response to the election result.

Nevertheless, the party still maintained its place as the biggest party, despite the fact that many polls stated that either the Moderates (M) or Sweden Democrats (SD) could take its place (see “September 9, 20:11” update down below).

Stefan Löfven. (PHOTO: Lotte Fernvall)

September 10, 07:49: “Almost Impossible To Form Government”

With 6002 out of 6004 districts counted, the Social Democrats (S) leads with 28.4% of the vote, while the Moderates (M) have got 19.8% and the Sweden Democrats (SD) got 17.6%.

However, when it comes to forming a government there exist two major blocs that both excludes the SD. The first, called the ‘Red-Gren Alliance’, is a coalition of the Social Democrats (S), Green Party (MP), and Left Party (V), which would get 144 mandates, according to these latest projections.

The other, simply called the ‘Alliance’, is a cooperation between the Moderates (M), Liberals (L), Center Party (C) and the Christian Democrats (KD), which would garner 143 of the mandates.

(PHOTO: Screenshot from Expressen.se)

Marcus Oscarsson, political expert for TV4, said this morning that it could be “almost impossible to form a government” due to how equally big the two major alliances are — both standing at approximately 40% of the vote each, with the SD with 17.6%.

September 9, 22:51: Green Party May Lose All Seats In Riksdag

The coalition government of the Social Democrats (S) and the Green Party (MP) may be killed as the MP may not get enough votes to be a part of the Riksdag (Swedish parliament).

According to SVT’s poll, the MP stands at 4.2% while Expressen has found that the party has got 4.4% of the votes as of 22:53 PM, just over the bare minimum of votes that it necessary to stay in parliament (4%).

After the 2014 election, the coalition government had received 37.9% of the votes (31.01% to the Social Democrats and 6.89% to the Green Party). The same coalition today, if these latest numbers can be trusted, would be 32.7% — although there is a chance that the MP must leave the Riksdag.

Hanna Lidström, spokesperson for the Green Youth organization, told Dagens Nyheter that “we should have been more outspoken when it came to the question of the environment”.

Sweden’s Green Party leader Gustav Fridolin at Almedalen. (Photo: Marcus Ericsson/TT)

September 9, 22:18: Le Pen Congratulates Sweden Democrats

French right-wing politician Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Rally (previously known as the National Front) seemed to congratulate the success of the Sweden Democrats on Twitter, calling the election a “bad night for the EU” establishment.

“Elections in Sweden: another bad night for the European Union. The democratic revolution is underway! ,” she tweeted.

According to Dagens Nyheter, SD leader Jimmie Åkesson hoped that Le Pen would win the French presidential election on April 23, 2017, wherein she was defeated by current French president Emmanuel Macron.

September 9, 22:10: With Over 2 Million Votes Counted, Moderates Overtakes SD — But Social Democrats Still Dominates

According to Expressen, the Social Democrats leads with 28.3% of the vote, as 2546 out of 6004 districts have been counted. That is about 2.2 million out of the total 7.4 million votes.

The second place is fluctuating between the Sweden Democrats (SD) and the Moderate Party (M), but as of 22:10 PM, the M leads with 19.1% (SD has 18%).

September 9, 20:11: Social Democrats May Remain Biggest, SVT Finds

A new poll by SVT has found that the Social Democrats (S) may become the largest party with 26.2% of the vote. The party was followed by the Sweden Democrats (SD) with 19.2%, the Moderates (M) with 17.8%, and the Left Party (V) with 9%.

Other polls, however, have found other results. YouGov’s poll from September 5 predicted that that the SD was the biggest with 24.8% of the vote; the Social Democrats the second biggest with 23.8% and the Moderates as the third with 16.5%.

(PHOTO: YouGov)

September 9, 17:30: Government Crisis Ahead?

According to political commentator Lena Mellin, who talked to Aftonbladet, there is a major chance that will be a crisis of who will be able to form a government after the election on Sunday.

“There can be very well a government crisis anytime within the last four years. I would be surprised if that did not happen, become someday it will happen,” Mellin said.

(PHOTO: Aftonbladet)

September 9, 17:00: Social Democrats Last Strategy

The Social Democrats (S), which had led the government since 2014, has sent out an estimated 700,000 text messages to voters across Sweden to make people vote for them.

According to Johan Öhrn, the chairman of the Social Democrats’ campaign strategy, the texts target geographical areas where not as many people usually don’t vote.

A screenshot, provided by Expressen, shows that the party wrote:

“Today it is election day. Vote for the Social Democrats for a safer Sweden — with higher pensions and more time for the family. Everybody’s voice should have equal power!”

September 9, 12:00: SD Members Threatened

As Expressen reports, two members of the ‘right-wing’ Sweden Democrats (SD) was threatened by a two guys shouting “fucking racists” and “whores” in the municipality of Nynäshamn.

“I am pregnant so I was very frightened to hear that one of the men had threatened to punch me in my stomach,” Emilia Orpana, chairwoman for the SD in Nynäshamn, told Expressen.

Fortunately, members of other parties stepped in to stop the two men and prime minister Stefan Löfven called the situation “serious” and called for Swedish citizens to “stand up against” anti-democratic “forces” facing our country.

Just days earlier, SD leader Jimmie Åkesson was allegedly threatened by the so-called Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) group, which demanded that the politician withdraws from the election. If not, the terrorist group reportedly warned, they would behead him together with his five-year-old son. Swedish security police (SÄPO) are currently investigating this threat.

September 8, 19:00: Sweden Democrats’ Final Speech

“When it comes to serious crimes, there is only one guarantor to stop a serious criminal from committing more crimes against behaved citizens,” Sweden Democrats’ (SD) leader Jimmie Åkesson told an audience in Stockholm on Saturday, “and that is that he is in jail.”

Åkesson quickly added that if a citizen of another country commits a serious offense in Sweden, “then life-long deportation should be mandatory” every time — “no exceptions.”

The Rational Times

Written by

Independent news bureau, founded in the aftermath of the 2015 migrant crisis in Sweden. Reports appears on social media and sometimes voiceofeurope.com …

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