Sweden Takes a Left Turn After 8 Years of Rightist Rule
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Version 0 of 1. GOTHENBURG, Sweden — After eight years of a tax-cutting, free-market government, Sweden was poised on Sunday night to turn toward the center left, as a loose coalition of left-leaning parties won a slim but clear lead in parliamentary elections. In a violent shock to Sweden’s liberal establishment, however, the far-right Sweden Democrats became the country’s third force in politics, more than doubling their share of the vote to 13 percent and setting the stage to hold the balance of power in a Parliament where the center left will struggle to build a stable majority. As the voters’ rejection of the current government became clear, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt announced that he was stepping down. “The Swedish people have spoken,” he said, adding that he would also quit his party’s leadership in the spring. On the eve of the poll, Stefan Lofven, 57, the left-leaning Social Democratic leader and likely new prime minister in the new administration, pledged to “stretch out his hand” to the smaller center-right parties to create a “strong majority” in Parliament that would deny the far right its desired role as kingmaker. “We have had eight years of this government, and it is now time for a new direction,” he declared. Mr. Lofven, a soft-spoken but pugnacious trade union leader with no parliamentary experience, offered Swedes an end to policies of tight money and tax cuts, promising instead to tax the banks and the better-off to fund more spending on schools, welfare and infrastructure, and to create jobs. Sweden’s rejection of the austerity policies championed by the center right will resonate in Europe, where the European Central Bank 10 days ago slashed interest rates to record lows and promised to inject billions into financial markets in an attempt to halt the slowdown in Europe’s economy. Preliminary results showed 43.7 percent of the votes going to a coalition dominated by the Social Democrats, partnered with the Green Party and the Left Party of former communists. The center-right bloc, meanwhile, got 39.3 percent of the vote. That was a slimmer gap than any predicted by opinion polls during the campaign, and one that points to a period of protracted uncertainty as the parties jostle for position in the government while distancing themselves from the far right. Feminist Initiative, a party that campaigned on a platform of equality and antiracism, had appeared poised to surpass the 4 percent threshold necessary to enter Parliament, potentially strengthening a center-left coalition. However, provisional results showed the party with only 3.1 percent. Despite steering the country to a rapid and sustained recovery from the global economic slump of 2008, the Moderate Party of Mr. Reinfeldt, 49, saw its support fall away to 23.2 percent, as Swedes grew anxious about the consequences for Sweden’s cherished welfare system with the government decreasing spending and expanding the role of the private sector. “The gold rush is over,” Mr. Lofven repeated during the campaign, tapping into a widespread feeling that excessive profits reaped by “rogue companies” were taking precedence over the quality of services in schools and elderly care. He has said that as prime minister, within 100 days he would launch a “reform package” for schools and set up a commission of inquiry into financing the welfare system. The center-right parties have accused the left of threatening to squander the economic gains of the past eight years and promising spending that cannot be financed responsibly. Money was so tight, Mr. Reinfeldt said at the start of the campaign, that his party could promise almost no increases in welfare expenditures. He said that was partly because of the “vast cost” of integrating tens of thousands of refugees from Syria, Somalia and Iraq. This high-profile move to link public spending cuts with immigration was seized upon by the far-right Sweden Democrats, who made a 90 percent cut in refugee numbers a central plank of their campaign. Their persistent message has tempted Swedes uneasy with the pace of immigration and worried about the strains on schools and housing as the country copes with numbers of refugees not seen since the Balkan wars two decades ago. Almost a third of voters for the Sweden Democrats on Sunday said they had backed the Moderate Party in the last election four years ago, according to exit polls by Sweden’s public sector broadcaster. |