Tag: Jonas Sjöstedt

The corona commission

Mats Melin new Swedish corona commission
New corona commission leader Mats Melin introduces himself while appropriately distancing himself from party politicians
pic: SvD Ari Luostarinen

After the first suggestions regarding the directives and staffing of the coming corona commission were rejected by a majority of parliament, the government has now put a plan together for the corona commission. In a press conference this afternoon, DN reports, the government announced that lawyer and legal consultant Mats Melin will head up the commission, and that the commission will be comprised of six or seven other, as yet unnamed, persons.

When the idea of a commission was first floated, the governing Social Democratic party’s suggestion was not to publish any results until after the next election. “We want to remind everyone that what we hear from the municipalities and regions is that they’re a little tired of reporting, and that they need to focus on dealing with the virus. I don’t want to have a situation in which we put yet another burden on them” was the word then from Prime Minister Löfven. In addition, it was said, the staffing of the commission would largely be made up of people with specific party affiliations.

The response from the majority in parliament was along the lines of “nice try,” and the government has since been forced to back away from both suggestions. Which is good since, as DN reported a couple weeks ago, the government has a poor track record when it comes to corona-related transparency. Emails have a way of being erased, DN wrote, and meeting notes have a way of being classified as “working material” and are thus not part of the official (and public) record. This can still happen in the future, but at least the grossest risks might be avoided by more strongly separating the commission from party politicians.

The corona commission that will be formed sometime in the near future must now be staffed by people who have the trust from all the different parties in parliament. “I think it’s extremely important that those who are chosen have the trust of all parties, and that they can’t be suspected of favoring one party’s interests over another’s” said Left party leader Jonas Sjöstedt to SvD. In a remarkable constellation, the Sweden Democrats, Christian Democrats, and the Center, Liberal and Moderate parties are all united on this. (No word from the Green party but one must assume that they’re somewhere behind the Social Democrats.)

The plan is that Sweden’s elder care during the corona crisis will be the focus of the first part of the investigation, with a report due to be presented in the fall. A more in depth report will come in the fall of 2021, and then on February 28th, 2022, the final results of the commission’s findings will be presented. “I’m looking forward to seeing the results” said Löfven.

Another important date is the next election: September 11, 2022.

9 Dec. – political Twister

strange political twists
pic: amazon.com

As expected, the government and its partners, the Center and Liberal parties, agreed today to postpone and rethink the Employment Service’s reform and privatisation. As written about in this post and this post, Jonas Sjöstedt threatened to bring a vote of no confidence to the floor if the government didn’t stop the reform. The Sweden Democrats (SD), as well as the Moderate and Christian Democratic parties, hopped on the Left party’s train. This was an unexpected development for the government, never having imagined these parties to side with each other on anything.

After a weekend of negotiations with the Center and Liberal parties – the Center party being the main instigator of the Service’s privatisation to begin with – the government has proposed a new timetable for the reform. As Göran Eriksson at SvD puts it, the government backed off on all the points that SD and the Moderate, Christian Democratic and Left parties agreed upon and had a majority in parliament to back it up with, but kept the points that those parties didn’t agree on and didn’t therefore have a parliamentary majority on. In other words, the government satisfied the SD, Moderate and Christian Democratic demands, but not all of the Left party’s demands. How the Center, for whom this matter was close to the heart, is going to frame the postponement remains to be seen.

The gist of the new proposal is that “the law of free system choice” (Lagen om valfrihetssystem, or LOV) will not be the only regulation implemented for employment actors ( – so not just private employment companies will be allowed to help job seekers, but also public organizations like the current employment service and even voluntary organisations can be involved). The government has also gone along with instituting a control system so that there is some kind of check on which companies are being paid from public coffers for doing what. Finally, the reform timetable is being put off a year, to 2022 (DN.se/reform).

So the government is saved, and what remains is how the parties are spinning it. Liberal party leader Nyamko Sabuni, one of the government’s supporting parties, is insisting (despite all evidence to the contrary) that the Left party had no influence over the government’s decision (according to the January agreement that allowed Löfven to hold onto power, the Left party is not “allowed” to have any influence over government policy). The Moderate party is calling the Liberal statement “nonsense“. As previously noted in this blog, Löfven is likely delighted over the postponement.

What he is likely not at all delighted about is this newfound spirit of cooperation between opposition parties with completely different political bents. It is hard to see where they might cooperate next (and they’re certainly not saying) but who knows. The Left party didn’t mind using public support from SD to get their way – gasp – which was also somewhat interesting (they didn’t have lunch or anything though). The Moderate party leader has had lunch with the SD leader Jimmie Åkesson just recently, but now has also just backed the Left party.

What bizarre political constellations can possibly follow?

5 Dec. – saving Unemployment and face

future uncertain
pic: Per Gudmundson, SvD

Remember back in November, when Jonas Sjöstedt threatened to bring a no confidence vote to the floor to protest the government’s plan to completely reform the Swedish Public Employment Service (better known as Arbetsförmedlingen)? If you forgot, there’s a post to read about it here. And if you didn’t, well, time is almost up. If nothing happens, the vote of no confidence on Eva Nordmark, Minister for Employment, will happen on Tuesday.

When Sjöstedt, leader of the Left party, first made this threat, he was not just protesting the disassembly and privatisation of the Employment Service, but also the provision of the January Agreement that said that under no circumstances was the Left party to have any influence over government policy. The provision was stipulated by the Center and Liberal parties specifically as a requirement for their support for the formation of the Löfven government.

It’s understandable that this was part of the Left party’s anger, as the government is absolutely dependent on the Left party to stay in power (otherwise they don’t have the votes to pass their budget). Still, it was likely the government thought that they were safe because the Left party would never vote with the Sweden Democrats, and the two right block parties, to topple them…

Until today, it turned out, when the Left party became willing to do just that. Apparently, the meetings held between the Social Democrats and the Left party have not been assuaging enough. The Left party is determined to change the course of the government in respect to the current privatisation of the Employment Service.

Despite the appearance of a wrench being thrown into the disassembly work, threats being tossed about, and very serious looks on all party leader’s faces, it’s likely most of them are glad for Sjöstedt’s moves. The Unemployment Services’ quick and dirty disassembly was causing a lot of worry and problems at the municipal level: When workers are getting unemployment help they do it through the Employment Service. Without an Employment Service office nearby, the sooner the unemployed would turn to the local municipality for help – and that would be expensive, as well as more than the municipalities thought they could handle.

With the way things were going, it looked like a disaster was shaping up. Despite having previously been very much in favor of dismantling the Employment Service, the Moderate party and the Christian Democrats are now saying that they have always thought the deconstruction was going too quickly, and that’s why they are backing Sjöstedt. They are also happy when their former Alliance parties, the Center and Liberal parties, don’t get what they said they were going to get by leaving the Alliance and throwing their support behind the Social Democrats: If they can make the Center and Liberal parties look bad, the Moderate and Christian Democrats won’t be fussy about how.

Even Löfven is secretly happy because he has definitely not been a fan of this process, but was forced into moving quickly by the Center and Liberal parties and the agreement they signed back in January. The Left, Moderate, and Christian Democratic parties are actually doing him a favour if he can get out of it.

What remains to be done is for Löfven to spend the next few days finding ways to pacify the Center and Liberal party leaders and help them find ways to save face when the Unemployment Service is now not going to be disassembled as rapidly as first imagined. The Center and Liberal parties know that if the no confidence vote goes through, the government will be significantly weakened and they could find themselves on their own. A way to avoid this is most likely going to be found.

Meanwhile, Minister Eva Nordmark must be feeling a bit like a punching bag. A no confidence vote is supposed to mark no confidence in the Minister. The Left, Moderate, and Christian Democratic parties, plus the Sweden Democrats, though, are not actually protesting her, or the way she is doing her job: They’re using a no confidence vote against her to not just protest a current political course of action, but to get back at the government and its supporting parties. It’s going to be hard to see any impressed faces on the voters anytime soon.

21 Nov. – another no confidence motion in the works

Sjöstedt has no confidence
pic: Jessica Gow/TT

Jonas Sjöstedt, leader of the Left Party, has threatened to set a no confidence vote into motion against Minister for Employment Eva Nordmark (read about no confidence votes here). Sjöstedt has made five demands, of which the first one is the big one:

  1. the government stops the privatisation of the Swedish Public Employment Service, aka Arbetsförmedlingen,
  2. the government allocates extra funds to stabilize the Employment Service’s ongoing work,
  3. the government creates an economically detailed and timely plan for stopping the closing of Employment Service offices, and ensures a continued presence across the country creates a plan and make the necessary decisions in the law or in regulations to maintain and develop the Employment Service’s special competencies regarding special needs and support for the disabled,
  4. the government states that any reform of the Employment Services will first be fully investigated in all relevant aspects, including cost estimates and transition procedures, before any part of the Employment Service is changed. An important part of this investigation is how municipalities’ responsibilities and economic situation is affected.

Reforming the Employment Service was a condition set by the Center Party to not vote down the Social Democrats in their bid to remain in power after the last election. Together with the Liberal party, the Center party and the two government parties agreed to a 73 point plan (also known as the January Agreement) that was filled with demands, including a total change in how the Employment Service was set up.

Many of the changes were anathema to Social Democratic voters, let alone Left party voters. The point that likely most sticks in the Left party’s craw is where it says ““This agreement means that the Left Party will not have influence over the political direction in Sweden during the coming term of office” (socialdemocraterna.se).

Sjöstedt is now considering calling the government’s bluff. Only together with the Left party does the government, together with the support from the Center and Liberal parties guaranteed by the government fulfilling the 73-point agreement, have the votes to pass legislation. Up until now, and even with the clause that was created to shut them out, the Left party has not withdrawn their support for the government: The alternative was clearly worse for them.

However, it seems that the Left party’s acquiescence is over, and that they’re even willing to accept support for their no-confidence motion from political opponents. The Sweden Democrats are already 100% behind the Left party’s idea, and even the Moderate Party is considering it. “We want to unseat all this government’s ministers, so it’s very likely that we’ll go along with a vote of no confidence” remarked Jimmie Åkesson, leader of the Sweden Democrats. Although reforming the Employment Service has been part of their platform for a long time, the Moderate party has problems with how it’s been implemented. Group leader for the Moderate party in Parliament, Tobias Billström, commented that although the Left and Moderate parties have very different ideas on how the Service should be run, the current plans for reforming it are “poorly thought out and badly instituted” and lack parliamentary support, to boot (SvD.se/Nordmark).

The question is what the government can do to appease the Left party, while not alienating the Center party. Also the Liberal party is left in a crunch situation: they went along with supporting a Social Democratic government largely to keep the Sweden Democrats isolated,and only as long as the January Agreement was upheld by all sides. If the government downshifts on its commitment to the agreement, the Liberals will be left hanging, and this when they are only just barely above the 4% threshold.

Sjöstedt has said that the government has two weeks to respond before he makes a no confidence motion.

2 Nov. – Left party wording raises questions

Left party grapples with honor violence
pic: futureswithoutviolence.org

The Left party began its congress this past Friday in Göteborg. Although the final decision on the wording of the party platform won’t be taken until May, suggestions for changes have been circulating in Left party circles for a while. One of the suggested changes has met with a lot of critique, also from Jonas Sjöstedt, the Left party’s leader.

In the platform suggestion in question, neither “honor based violence” (hedersvåld) nor “honor based oppression” (hedersförtryck) are mentioned. Instead, the issue is tucked into the larger section with the title Gender Power Hierarchy (könsmaktsordning) where it states “Disparagement takes different forms, and its legitimization can be more or less hidden by everything from the exercise of authority and honor-related concepts to social norms” (SvD.se/honor). The term “honor-related concepts” is a pretty heavily watered down variation on honor-based violence and oppression, people are saying.

The Left party has been accused of being soft on honor-based violence before. In August, representative Amineh Kakabaveh was forced out of (or stepped down from, depending on how you see it) the Left party. According to her, her party made it impossible for her to remain a representative by ignoring her at meetings: It was punishment for speaking out too strongly on women’s behalf, and for criticizing the party for not doing nearly enough to support women (see this post).

Similar critique is now being aimed at the party, and this time from another long-term party member, Jonas Lundgren. The phrase honor-related concepts “relativizes” honor based violence, he says. “It’s like trying to prettify the control and oppression that many suffer in honor’s name” (SvD.se/honor). “We have a feminist platform that declares that these questions are big and important. And yet, dammit, (lik förbannat) there have been people in central positions in the party that have questioned that analysis, wondering if it isn’t an instance of racism” (DN.se/honor).

“This was a mistake in the program” said Jonas Sjöstedt. “It’s likely that there will be rewrites, and the words honor-related concepts will be changed” said Hanna Cederin, the party program committee’s convener (DN.se/honor).

That sounds like an excellent idea.

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