Sabuni Archives • SwedeInternational

16 Nov. – Sabuni’s kick-off speech

Nyamko Sabuni starts party congress in Västerås
pic: folkbladet.se

The Liberal Party started their party congress today in Västerås with a speech by party leader Nyamko Sabuni, her first since being elected in late June. SvD reports that Sabuni’s speech avoided all sensitive topics, like support for the Löfven government and the January Agreement, and instead focused on the issue of suburban zones, or hotspots (utsatta områden).

“Parallell societies grow because we politicians allow it” Sabuni stated. “Today, we launch a program for the suburbs with an ambitious goal – that there will be no vulnerable zones in Sweden in the year 2030.” Sabuni mentioned reforms on all fronts – crime fighting, extremism, economical self sufficiency, gender equality, democratic values and safer residential areas. “The suggestions deal with stopping the slumification that is a breeding ground for a negative progression. It’s about measures to lessen overcrowded living conditions and measures to reduce the number of people living off of government support (Svd.se/Sabuni).

In more general terms, Sabuni tried to raise the profile of the Liberal party on other issues as well. “Liberalism must answer,” she declared, “when it comes to dealing with the important questions – not least climate issues, immigration and the socioeconomic gap that is only widening in this age of globalisation.”

Taking a page from her predecessor Jan Björklund’s favorite playbook, Sabuni also stressed the importance of schools, saying that for the Liberal party, schools form the basis for everything. “It is there dreams and hopes for the future are born. This is why we Liberals have always prioritized schools.”

Also honor violence was mentioned. “After every summer vacation we see empty chairs where a girl once sat. But few municipalities follow up and ask what happened with these girls, and no one knows how many there are. We know exactly how many Almas were born in Sweden in 2018 -564 – but not how many were taken from school and married off. It can’t continue like this.”

27 aug. – no luck for the Liberals

The latest poll, run by Sweden’s Television (svt.se), shows that the Liberal Party’s new leadership has not been enough to lift the party above the minimum parliamentary threshold. The poll showed that when asked what party they would vote for if elections were held today, people basically answered like they voted the last time. For the Liberals, this means the support of 3.7% of respondents, up only 0.1% from polls before Nyamko Sabuni took on the Liberal Party leadership. The minimum level of voter support to rate a seat in parliament is 4.0%.

Naturally, this is a huge disappointment for the Liberals. As SVT noted, both Ulf Kristersson and Per Bolund, for the Moderate and Green parties respectively, caused a bump in their party’s popularity when they were voted in as party leaders (). Why this hasn’t happened with Sabuni has various analysts buzzing. SVT News reporter Mats Knutsson wonders if it isn’t because, frankly, she hasn’t been half so outspoken after her election as she was before her election (b). Of course, she needed to shore up her base and unite the party after having won a pretty tight race against party colleague Eric Ullenhag, and this explains why she has made no drastic, or even interesting, move on the domestic politics front. But Sabuni hasn’t made much of a peep about anything at all, which doesn’t exactly inspire anyone to say they’d vote Liberal.

The only party that showed an increase in support was the Sweden Democrats, gaining 1.7% to reach a total support of 18.5%. This increase, along with all the other parties’ results, are within the poll’s margin of error, so while they might be happy about it, there actually isn’t much to write home about for them, or for any party. So far, it’s the same old same old.

28 June – Sabuni Friday

After a fairly intensive campaign period, today is the day Nyamko Sabuni is formally chosen to be the Liberal Party’s new party leader. What she’ll now do though is somewhat unclear, in particular as she has said that immediate withdrawal from the January Agreement her predecessor Jan Björklund signed is not (at all) the first thing on her agenda. As Integration minister, Sabuni raised hackles for daring to suggest a certain level of Swedish might be a good requirement for citizenship. She also expressed a positive attitude towards forbidding veils in schools. For both these suggestions she was called many uncomplimentary names, but she failed to budge on her opinions. It is precisely that straight spine that many of her followers appreciate (as long as they agree, naturally).

25 June – Eric not the conqueror

This afternoon Eric Ullenhag gave it up for Nyamko Sabuni, who can now count on being the next leader of the Liberal Party, starting Friday.

In the Debate article published in Aftonbladet, Ullenhag says the party risks deep divisions if he continues with his campaign, and asks party members to ”take care of each other,” and that other party members – and even other parties’ members – aren’t the enemy.

The ball is now in Sabuni’s court.

24 June – Sabuni nominated: it’s crunch time

The Liberal Party’s Nominating committee has formally nominated Nyamko Sabuni for party leader. From 21 districts, she received 19 votes of support so this shouldn’t be a surprise. But as noted yesterday, 11 electors wrote in a debate article in Sunday’s Expressen that they would vote their own way – iow for Eric Ullenhag – and ignore their subjects’ votes.

Will they or won’t they? We’ll be finding out soon, before or on vote day this coming Friday.

23 June – I don’t like it and I won’t do it

Sabuni won the majority of votes in several heavy districts throughout Sweden – but some voters’ representatives are saying they will not vote the same way.

11 ”ombudsmän” published a debate article in the afternoon paper Expressen yesterday stating that despite how their party members may have voted, they intend to vote for Eric Ullenhag as next Liberal Party leader. They must represent, they write, not just the party menbers who voted but also non-voting party members, non party members who have a liberal bent, as well as ”in the end, Sweden’s entire population” (Expressen.se).

Good of them. Saving the whole of Sweden like that, solving the problem of people not voting the way they should, saving the people from themselves.

While the representatives with a binding vote are not bound to vote the way their districts have voted, there is an understanding that they are to further that will. That these representatives have decided not to do that can only indicate an enormous hubris, paired with a misunderstanding of their job. The Liberal Party isn’t their sandbox.