Tag: Åkesson

4 Dec. – Kristersson at the Rubicon

Åkesson now allowed to join in some reindeer games
pic: expressen.se

As DN’s Ewa Sandberg put it, the Moderate party leader Ulf Kristersson ripped the bandaid off, and had an official chinwag today with Jimmie Åkesson, leader of the Sweden Democrats. The taboo of speaking to Åkesson in an official capacity has officially been challenged, even more than when the Christian Democratic party leader had lunch with him. DN’s editorial board called it “wrong”, and “ill-judged”, and “unwise” – because the Sweden Democrats (SD) are “not a party like the others. It’s a movement with roots in nazism” (DN.se/bandaid).

The latest and most stodgy poll of them all, the poll done twice a year by Statistics Sweden, had the Social Democrats at their lowest level in years (for the SCB poll) at 26.3% and the Sweden Democrats at their highest, with 22.6%. The Moderate party, who has almost always been Sweden’s second most popular party and opposition leader, was, again, a decided third (DN.se/SCBpoll).

When he was first elected party leader, Kristersson said he would never speak with, negotiate or compromise with the Sweden Democrats. But that was over two years ago, when it was still possible to bully them in parliament, and not let them join in any reindeer games. SD has since only become more popular, and nearly a quarter of the population is giving them the thumbs up. For the Moderate party (still the party that knows what fork to use between them) to gain power and get its policies through parliament to make its supporters happy, it needs SD. The Moderates appear to have given up the idea of getting the previous Alliance together completely, and are throwing a feather of their hat in with the Sweden Democrats. Rubicon, crossed.

As previously noted in this blog, the Sweden Democrats have had it easy, having never had to face the music for their enacted politics because they’ve never had the chance to enact any of their policies on a national scale (just in Sölvesborg and the jury is out over there).

But even if the majority of Sweden’s voters might someday vote for SD, which isn’t likely, maybe it won’t really matter – because according to Dagens Nyheter “the majority is never definitively right, even if it calls itself “the people” (DN.se/bandaid). Some people might think a statement like that is even more scary than SD.

30 aug. – more upset politicians

pic: https://www.expressen.se/nyheter/rekordhogt-fortroende-for-akesson/

There have been many politicians speaking their outrage over the violent crimes that have made the papers recently – see yesterday’s post. But they’re not happy today either. Despite concerted efforts at ignoring, freezing out, shunning and generally speaking ill of the Sweden Democrats, the popularity of party leader Jimmie Åkesson continues unabated. The latest DN/Ipsos poll shows that the number of people who express a strong confidence in – nay, have faith in – Jimmie Åkesson, is at its highest level ever: 27%. ().

Somewhat comforting might be that 68% of respondents say they have no confidence in Jimmie Åkesson. But that is his lowest number ever. As Expressen notes, he now has fewer voters opposed to him than Isabella Lövin, the Green Party leader.

That has just got to hurt.

Stefan Löfven (S) remains at the top with a 40% trusted rating. He is followed by Ebba Busch Thor (KD) at 35% and Ulf Kristersson (M) at 31%. Jonas Sjöstedt (V) and Annie Lööf (C) are neck and neck at 30%. Jimmie comes next with his 27%, followed by the last three: Sabuni (L) at 20% and the two Green Party leaders Lövin and Bolund at 17% and 11% respectively.

Jenny Madestam at Expressen explains the phenomenon by reasoning that Åkesson is a leader with firm principles: “He’s a known quantity – you know where you have him.” Possibly, the razor that is the January Agreement between the left block and members of the right block has cut both ways. Löfven’s average numbers can reflect a lack of enthusiasm for giving in to a chunk of right-block demands, and Lööf’s numbers (down from 41% last September) a reflection of the glitter vest and pompoms she waves around for the Social Democrats.

On the other hand, these numbers can mean very little in the larger scheme of things. Everything can be explained, or explained away. The latter is more likely: As Dagens Nyheter notes, every single party leader has more voters that don’t have faith in them than voters that do (). If that doesn’t take some mental manipulation to handle, nothing does.