A little blog about Swedish politics, in English
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.
For the seventh time, Sweden tried and failed to be host country for a winter olympics (svd.se). For various reasons, Sweden lost to Italy; one stated reason was the lack of enthusiasm on the part of Sweden’s population, perhaps in particular Stockholm’s previous city counsellor for sports who stated that Stockholm didn’t want to be a part of it (svd.se). It perhaps also didn’t help that OS athletes were supposedly supposed to use public transportation to get around, something that only just barely works for the native population. The Olympic Committee was also not convinced that Sweden’s businesses were absolutely committed to financing the spectacle. The Swedish games committee had only gotten ”letters of intent” to finance it, nothing more concrete.
It is also possible that Stockholm city council chair Anna König Jerlmyr breaking out in song in the middle of her presentation didn’t go over that well either. In her defense, though, it was only a single line from an ABBA song. It was cute. Perhaps too.
Sweden’s presentation was ”new” and ”modern” according to Stockholm’s current city counsellor for sports, but it must be surmised that the majority of the Olympic committee was not so into Sweden’s big ideas of what modern is.
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.
Today we find out if Sweden or Italy will host the 2026 winter Olympics – an Olympics we are told will not cost Swedish taxpayers a single little krona! It will be entirely financed to the max by sponsors! So great for Sweden on all fronts! Sounds too good to be true!
Even the Olympic Committee itself criticized Sweden for its budget analysis.
While there is no doubt that an Olympics in town (actually several towns and even Latvia) would be exciting, how exciting is it afterwards? Ask Falun with its two jump runs built for the 2015 World Cup that now stand almost entirely unused (dn.se). That can’t be fun to look at.
It’s not in the public’s hands, however, and we’re split on the issue anyway. If it’s to be, let’s hope we can scratch together more enthusiasm.
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.
*Ed. note: correction! The EU meeting mentioned below is still going on. Löfven, again, won’t make it home for Midsommar celebrations aka the biggest and arguably most important holiday in Sweden.
Stefan Löfven must have been glad to be back in Sweden for its holiday – for many years the EU ignored Sweden entirely and set up its top leadership summit on Midsummer exactly. This year though, it was yesterday. Löfven wasn’t able to come home to Sweden with much accomplished though. The Swedish aim is a climate neutral Europe by 2050, but the resulting agreed upon text says merely that the EU will be climate neutral according to the Paris Agreement and then, in a footnote according to DN.se, it states that for many EU countries this means 2050.
Not a power mission statement iow, but certainly better than nothing. A strong – and binding- statement is scary for countries like Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary inter alia who fear environmental regulations will negatively affect jobs and growth. You have to respect that worry too.
The Swedish supreme court is currently considering a case regarding the possible extradition of a Chinese citizen back to China. The man, allegedly a participant in the Tiananmen uprising in 1990 but since then also a civil servant in the Chinese government, fled to Sweden in 2014 (apparently under another name), married and has lived at a variety of addresses in Sweden since 2015. The Chinese government was and is after him for embezzlement to the tune of a hundred million kronor, give or take, from when he was a boss at a state-owned Chinese company.
Whether or not he is a criminal to the nth degree or not is, however, not the case before the court. Instead, the court is deciding whether or not he can be guaranteed a fair trial (read free from torture, at a minimum) in China.
Chances are the court says no, because the man has today been released from custody pending the court’s verdict in a couple weeks.
”We’re not Baghdad Bob” reports one of SvD’s sources regarding the supposedly strong – but, alas, somewhat undocumented – support that Eric Ullenhag has from Liberal Party members around the country. (I don’t know how, but this person is connecting support for Ullenhag with Saddam Hussein’s spokesperson during the Gulf War in the early 90’s. Can you?) Even if todays’s vote in Stockholm throws its weight behind Ullenhag it isn’t enough to topple Sabuni – unless of course, the delegates disregard their district’s votes. (In which case the list of problems within the Liberal Party would get a lot larger.) This should be unlikely though, really. Ullenhag will likely go back to Amman, and everyone gets to adjust to a new (interesting and exciting in this writer’s opinion) political reality in this little pond of Sweden