image: Noella Johansson/TT
“Who cares if the Prime Minister is Löfven or Kristersson if they’re both following a conservative agenda?” asked Kakabaveh, the political independent formerly of the Left party. And with that simple question, Löfvens fairly clear path to reinstatement got suddenly just a little bit rougher.
Kakabeveh created headlines nearly two years ago when she left the Left party – just before she was kicked out. Being too outspoken on behalf of women (read an old post on this topic), and putting the blame for women’s situations in the world squarely on both sides of the political spectrum, was her crime.
Now she’s saying that if the Social Democrats are just going to follow the same conservative policies as “the blue team”, she is prepared to vote no to the Social Democrats (DN.se), and upset her colleagues as much or more than she has done in the past.
(Side note: the right side of Swedish politics is the blue side, and the left side of Swedish politics is the red side. This is the opposite of American political color characterization. For the record, the Sweden Democrats are called brown.)
For Kakabaveh there isn’t anyone else to vote for, so she’d just be voting no to everybody without anybody gaining her vote. The crux is that her vote is needed to make up the 175 votes for Löfven over the 174 votes stacked against him. If she votes no, she could put Sweden on the path to an extra election.
Political “wildings” are members of parliament who were put in parliament due to being on the party ticket, but who for one reason or another, have left their party. They remain in parliament, and pull down a sweet salary, without actually taking part in the working of parliament. Kakabaveh is just slightly better than many other cases in that many people actually wrote her name on the Left party ballot when they voted. Her mandate in parliament is therefore more personal and stronger than just being put on the party list via an internal popularity contest.