My first Swedish National Election — ugh!
I’ve lived in Sweden for almost 20 years over several decades. This last winter I became a Swedish citizen, like the rest of my dual-citizen family, just in time to vote in my first ever Swedish National Election. Yay!
Or…
This is the first time in my life that I am not looking forward to voting. And I love voting. When I was a little kid, I used to go with my dad to watch him vote in the voting booth. And I did the same thing with my kids: I made them come with me, before school to watch me vote (and to help me fill in those ovals with the #2 pencils).
I admit, I’ve mostly voted in the U.S., and I always had more than a few politicians I supported energetically as well as those I didn’t like at all. But there were always more than a few who I was convinced would make a positive difference in peoples’ lives if elected.
I don’t feel that way at all this election. This election I feel like I’m faced with overwhelming poor choices between inauthentic politicians and petty-corrupt parties. And I’m being generous in that description.
So who to vote for? Because vote I will. In Sweden you vote for parties, not politicians which sometimes is good and sometimes not, since you have no idea about the people you choose to represent you.
Let’s start with the NO choices.
I will never ever vote for Nazis. That means that I won’t be voting for the Sweden Democrats.
I will never ever vote for racists. That means I won’t be voting for the Christian Democrats, a very un-Christian party, if you ask me, led by someone who acts like she’s auditioning for an anchor job at Fox News.
I don’t vote for corrupt or semi-corrupt parties. That means I won’t be voting for the biggest conservative party, Moderaterna, who’ve done very good business selling public assets and then going to work for the companies buying those assets. Also, their party leader gets off on lying to little old lady Holocaust victims. He is a total putz.
I won’t vote for the Liberalerna, who used to be a very solid middle party but have somehow made the decision that supporting the extreme right, old Nazis is a good strategy. Where have you gone Bengt Westerberg??!!
And I won’t vote for the Social Democrats, even though they have traditionally been the party that has most closely aligned to my values. They have completely lost their way. Actually, they’ve been this way since we lost Olof Palme, who stood for a moral and humane Sweden. Nowadays they are competing with the right on neo-liberal policies while participating in the petty corruption that has overtaken Swedish politics. I cannot trust them to do the right thing.
That leaves three parties left: Centern, the traditional farmers party, Vänstern, the old communist party, and Miljöpartiet, the greens.
I probably respect Annie Lööf, the leader of Centern, more than any other party leader. I think she is smart, authentic and shows up as a real person. She is not afraid of making hard choices. She is completely unusual in that respect. I would vote for her but for the fact that Centern is just too far right for me economically — the drumbeat of lower taxes and deregulation when Sweden is facing some serious issues, just doesn’t cut it for me. I wish they were a bit less so, but they are true to their traditionally conservative background. While I respect that, I can’t vote for it.
Vänstern is probably closest to my views on the economic solutions needed by Sweden — such as raising taxes on the billionaires, reverse the privatization and profit/greed driven management of the failing Swedish public schools and health care system. These are policies my Senator and former mayor Bernie Sanders could get behind. On the other hand, there is more than a whiff of antisemitism among the party, similar to the English left. And the fact that they completely failed to do anything to protect Sweden’s weakest during the Covid pandemic shows that they don’t really walk the walk. So no to the left.
That leaves Miljöpartiet, the Greens. Actually, I think we are in a Hair on Fire moment when it comes to climate change. While all of the other parties are falling over themselves to give tax rebates to offset rising gas and electric prices, Miljöpartiet is pretty much the only party focusing on the shift to renewable energy. I was and am shocked that Sweden is so far behind when it comes to solar and wind. Shocked. In Sweden they are clearcutting forests as if the whole country was named Bolsonaro. All of the Swedes talk a good game when it comes to sustainability, they just don’t put their money or votes where their mouths are. I only wish that Miljöpartiet wasn’t so supportive of a lot of the neo-liberal policies locally. It makes me suspect that I don’t really know where they stand economically.
I’ll vote green this year. My feeling about this election reminds me of the story of the two little old ladies in a resort in the Catskills. One lady turns to the other and says:
“The food here is terrible.”
“Yes,” replies the other. “And in such small portions.”
That’s kind of how I feel about the choices in this election — bad choices, small, minded politicians.
I ran away from Trump for this?
