“Next year it will be a poorer May Day train for sossar†, said Riksdag member Tobias Andersson (SD) to DN last spring. He had just said that the Sweden Democrats got the government to “tighten the tap with funding†to the Social Democrats by going after their lottery business.
The government promised to make the opposition poorer.
When social democrats walked through Stockholm on the first of May this year, it was therefore with a special charge. Don’t take democracy for granted, urged party secretary Tobias Baudin (S) from the stage at Norra Bantorget.
“They wanted to see shorter May Day trains. But look around, (…) today we have shown that they will never break the Swedish labor movement,†he said and received by far the longest applause of the day.
The Social Democrats are not alone about seeing the seriousness of this. Sven Otto Littorin, former moderate minister, has explained the problem. He says that he understands those who see red because of the working methods and the lack of morals that have marked the lottery sales, moreover – some think it is fun to slap S on the face†. “But it is undeniably a real warning bell when government power is used for such purposes.â€
A government should not try to prevent the opposition from challenging for power. It doesn’t get any harder than that.
Or harder than that where that not.
The Sweden Democrats simply want to weaken a political enemy. They want to make it harder for the opponent to win the next election.
The other Tidö parties have later tried to come up with other explanations than Tobias Andersson. But it will be transparent. If it had been about a concern for gambling addiction, completely different efforts would have been preferable. And if there had been a genuine concern for people who risked ending up with the Bailiff – something that had previously happened to some who bought the Social Democrats’ lottery tickets – the critics would have noted that something like that did not happen for many years.
The Sweden Democrats simply want to weaken a political enemy. They want to make it harder for the opponent to win the next election. And Ulf Kristersson helps them – with that too.
It’s a dangerous move. And something that has not happened in Sweden before.
How radical the shift is anyone who watches what happened after the Moderates’ victory in the 2002 election realizes that. When they realized that they would lose large parts of their income, they contacted the Social Democrats – and then they jointly to change the party support so that the Moderates’ economy would not collapse. We were not sure why they chose to help, said a moderate state secretary later, but perhaps it was because the Social Democrats understood how important it was to have a functioning opposition.
There was an agreement on the fundamentals. Some democratic rules of the game.
That Ulf Kristersson’s resilience is not something to pin your hopes on is well known at this point. But the sharp criticism of the prime minister has also caused the Social Democrats to overestimate their own abilities.
And not least: make Baudin sound like a powerful pamp.
For what was his response to the attacks? Well, he quickly turned to sinister threats: “It will be very difficult for me to hold out against all the voices in our party who want us to give back the legislative path and hurt moderates and Sweden Democrats as much as possible, he explained in DN in March. “We can do damn well for them,†he later continued for Göteborgs-Posten, where he also talked about what efforts would weaken the opponents’ economy.
It’s hard to imagine a more ungrateful reaction.
Baudin sounds like a powerful pamp – and quickly moved on to formulating ill-conceived threats.
What is Baudin really saying for? That it is undemocratic to steal the wallet from the political opponent – and that he will therefore retaliate by doing exactly the same thing.
He portrays his party as hypocrites. And in this way turns a serious movement in Swedish politics into any casual quarrel.
The threat is also painful cleverly worded. What can he win for? What power is there even behind the words? Should he join the Center Party and the Environment Party in an attack on party funding after an election win?
What can be lost with Baudin’s carelessness is all the clearer. Because if he claims to be prepared to do exactly the same thing as the government if he wins the next election, does that mean it’s not that dangerous after all?
He makes something dramatic appear everyday. He helps the Tidöparties to blur boundaries that everyone just agreed should not be crossed.
The Social Democrats must be better than this. Time demands it from them. They say they understand. But why is it not visible?
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