Social Democratic Party Archives • SwedeInternational

Last week in Sweden

**Know your voters.**
image: https://tcf.org/content/commentary/does-voting-matter/

We don’t know yet what exactly happened at the Social Democratic party meeting in the Stockholm suburb of Botkyrka last week, but it could be worrying. Organized crime and city hall is not a combination we want to see.

It’s your money

As SVT reported recently, income from gang- and clan-run welfare fraud is even larger than their income from drug dealing. Welfare fraud is about systematically faking the numbers when applying for subsistence allowance, assistant allowance, housing allowance and association subsidies. Welfare fraud is about using state monies for personal gain.

10-20 billion kronor a year

No one knows how much money is paid out for services not due and never rendered. The Swedish National Financial Management Authority and the National Audit Office estimated several years ago, however, that the number was somewhere between 10-20 billion kronor paid out every year.

One of the services that municipalities support are the after-school and youth clubs that are sprinkled heavily throughout Sweden. These clubs were largely created to give kids a place to go to avoid getting into drugs or being recruited into gangs. These clubs are heavily subsidized by local municipalities, and are often run by associations.

One such association is ABF, the Workers’ Education Union. ABF is not a Social Democratic association, but it was co-founded by the Social Democratic party, and is closely associated with them. ABF Botkyrka runs many different courses, study circles and clubs, including several after-school, young adult centers. The current uproar about ABF, the Social Democratic party, and fears for democracy began over a year ago.

ABF = gangs??

The Botkyrka municipality, in which the Social Democratic party is the biggest and which holds the board chairmanship, began to hear rumors – too many rumors – that the local, subsidized ABF organization had ties to local gangs. In mid-February 2022 (a year ago now), the municipality’s board voted to freeze their payments to all of Botkyrka ABF’s after-school and young adult programs. The risk was too great, it was said, and the programs had to be shut down immediately. Soon afterwards, the municipality commissioned a formal investigation on the economy and activities of Botkyrka ABF.

The report they received back was alarming. Knives and drugs, youth wearing bullet-proof vests, youth with criminal records in responsible positions, gang ties, and dubious book-keeping were the headlines. ABF protested and made efforts to meet the accusations, but the funds remained frozen.

Has there been a coup?

Since then, it’s been reported, ABF members of the Social Democratic party have invited ABF supporters to join the party. It is these new Social Democratic party members, it is suspected, who tipped the scales at the internal meeting of the Botkyrka Social Democratic party this February and voted to oust the party chairman Ebba Östlin. Ebba Östlin was a prominent advocate of shutting down ABF’s after-school and youth centers.

Several questions are now raised. Was this a coup organized by the ABF to ensure their funding would be reinstated? Was this an abuse of the democratic process? Is the Social Democratic party in Botkyrka now in the hands of a criminal element that could use the voting process for financial gain? Or was Östlin only voted out because she was unpopular? The national Social Democratic party has said it will investigate.

15 Dec. – Löfven’s Christmas speech

Löfven holding the Christmas speech on Gotland
pic: Henrik Montgomery/TT

Prime Minister Stefan Löfven held his Christmas speech today in the ruins of the Church of St. Nicholas in Visby, on the island of Gotland. The church was part of a Dominican monastery built in the 1230s, and was burnt down in 1525 by an army from Lübeck. It is unclear why the speech was held just here, but there was at least fika and a mingle in the ruins before the speech.

Löfven spoke of how the season is representative of something bigger – of caring, and of not being indifferent to how others in society are faring. “When colleagues are chatting about how stressful it is to buy presents, others are wondering how in the world there will be money to buy even a single present to put under the tree for the kids” Löfven said. “That – sickness, loneliness, and poverty – can never be reduced to being one person’s problem. It is our collective responsibility.”

Löfven also threw in a note of thanks to the police and nurses who will be working during the holiday. “Many of us can be relatively free over the holidays, while nurses and the police continue working. They celebrate without their families so that we can be secure while celebrating with ours.”

A few pointed political comments were also thrown in, in a change from last year’s speech. Regarding the challenges forming a government after the results of the 2018 election, Löfven exclaimed that “We still succeeded in building a government led by the Social Democrats. Not least after brave decisions by the Center and Liberal parties, who chose to stand on the right side of history.”

Löfven also pointed a finger at the Moderate party leader Ulf Kristersson, SvD reports, saying that he had betrayed his promise not to cooperate with the Sweden Democrats: Kristersson only said that to keep the old Alliance parties together, Löfven claimed. It was also, Löfven expounded, “morally reprehensible” to have said to a Holocaust survivor that they would not cooperate with SD, and the turn around and do it” speaking of Kristersson’s meeting with Hédi Fried in June of 2018, and then his lunch with Jimmie Åkesson earlier this month.

Löfven also spoke the need for fast integration, and about the fight against crime. “Crime doesn’t have anything to do with the color of one’s skin or one’s religion, but with social class (samhällsklass) and a feeling of community (gemenskap).”

He also promised more money would be coming to the municipalities around Sweden. “We will not desert any municipality, any region, any part of the country. This means that we need to hold together” (SvD.se/julspeech).

Wed. 21/8 – a hoped-for comeback

Aida Hadzialic is back
pic: en.wikipedia.org

Aida Hadzialic is back. Three years ago, after having been pulled over driving home from a party, she was found to be over the breath alcohol limit. Of course it was a huge scandal – driving drunk is right up there with tax evasion. But now Hadelius has been plucked out of the freezer of shame and is being rehabilitated by her party as council member of the Social Democratic opposition in Region Stockholm (Stockholms landsting).

Aida Hadzialic was considered a rising star in the Social Democratic party. At only 27 years old, she was made a minister in the first Löfven government. Her immigrant background (her family came here from Bosnia when she was five years old) contributed to her poster child status. But while success stories like hers are massively marketed in Sweden, she was actually popular and respected by party members and even the populace at large.

Many thought her lapse of judgement, resulting in her being put in the party’s doghouse, was a damn shame. Many thought that a couple parts per thousand over the limit was no reason to be so hard on her. The DUI conviction (Driving Under the Influence) could have derailed her chances for a continued political ascent. But she wasn’t considered savvy for nothing. Hadzialic made a full mea culpa and quickly resigned, taking the wind completely out of the sails of her political opponents. Such a cool move only strengthened the premonition that she’d be back.

Not that her new position is much of a boon. With the fiasco spelled New Karolinska, many believed the Stockholm Moderates would be sitting ducks at the last election, and that they’d suffer a withering defeat. But that was not to be, and the Social Democrats lost fairly big. Hadzialic’s return is perhaps a hoped-for comet with coattails big enough for the rest of the party to ride on.