måndag 6 oktober 2008

Politics of Sweden

The politic of Sweden is dominated by 7 parties that represent the Riksdag (parliament). These parties are Vänsterpartiet, Socialdemokraterna and Miljöpartiet, these 3 belong to the red block, on the blue block four parties are represented, these are Centerpartiet, Folkpartiet, Kristdemokraterna and Moderaterna. Except these there is of course many other parties that is not represented in the Riksdag but in some municipalities have large support, for example Sverigedemokraterna wich may enter the Riksdag next election, many fear, and Kommunistiska Partiet. Each of the parties that is represented in the Riksdag tend to have a flower as a symbol.
Vänsterpartiet, in english "Left Party" is a socialistic and feministic party. Before it was called Vänsterpartiet Kommunisterna, but after the fall of Soviet Union, "kommunisterna" was deleted from the name, and now they dont see them selves as communists but socialists. The red flower they have as symbol is a red sweet-william flower (nejlika in swedish). Vänsterpartiet was created in the year 1917, same year as the Russian Revolution. It is the most "red" party in the Riksdag.
The party is after the election 2006 the fifth largest party, but it have seen better times. The party leader is Lars Ohly who took after Gudrun Schyman who was the leader in the 1990:s, she was very popular and at her rule the party was the third largest party in the Riksdag.

Socialdemokraterna, (The Social Democrats) is the largest political party in Sweden and have been shaping the swedish society after the second worldwar. It is a socialistic or rater social-democratic party and belong to the red block. It have been ruling in the Riksdag many years, often together with Vänsterpartiet and Miljöpartiet. It has a close relationship to the workers union in all country. It is thanks to this party that real poverty dissapered from Sweden and created the good living standars that today is in Sweden. The most popular and internationally known leader was Olof Palme who had a very good social welfare politic, and criticized USA very often, so the contacts to USA was not the best at the time, but it did not affect Sweden in a bad way. Instead Sweden had more contact with develpment countries that today. Unfortunatly Palem was shoot in 1986, later Socialdemokraterna has been moving more to the blue side, for exemple accept the European Union. It finally lost power in the election 2006 with Göran Persson as the leader. Today Socialdemokraterna is not the ruling party, but there is still hope they take the power back in next election with Mona Sahlin as the party leader.

Miljöpartiet de Gröna, or in english "The Greens" is a green political party wich most important question is about the nature and global warming and are against nuclear power. It is often placed at the red block/socialistic block together with Vänsterpartiet and Socialdemokraterna, but see themselves to not belong to any of the two blocks, and in some municipalities it is closer to the blue side. It is the youngest party and have been represented in the Riksdag since 1988.

Centerpartiet or "the Center Party" in english have long been referred to the middle between the two blocks and is as Miljöpartiet a green party. Now days it is very closely related to the blue parties and is in its politic very liberal and "capitalistic". The leader is Maud Olofsson and made the party very popular in last election, specially among women. Today it is a ruling party together with Folkpartiet, Kristdemokraterna and Moderaterna in the political Alliance, as the four parties call themselves, "Allians för Sverige". In some municipalities Centerpartiet is represented at the red side.

Folkpartiet or "Peoples Party" if you try to translate it to english, is a blue party and is the liberals in Swedish politic. They are also in the Alliance with the three other parties on the blue block. The leader is Jan Björklund. The party is the swedish version of the Democrats in USA, that also is liberal. The party had its worst result for a long time in last election but thank to the Alliance they were able to rule anyway. They are the party that also want to come closer to European Union and want to create an european version of FBI, wich means smaller independence of the european countries and of course Sweden.

Kristdemokraterna, "Christian Democrats" is the second most blue party in swedish politic. Kristdemokraterna fear to be expelled from the Riksdag in next election when they probably will have less than 4% of the votes and have to leave. The leader is Göran Hägglund. It is often seen as a religious christian party, but themselves deny it, but its easy to see that their political opinions is closely related to christian opinions. For exemple they are against marriage between homosexuals and many people supporting Kristdemokraterna is also against abortion. The only region were they are popular is in Jönköping municipality and in Småland were christianity is very strong. Otherwise they have few supporters in the country.

Moderaterna, the political party most far away in the right. blue corner in the Riksdag and now the de facto-rulers of Sweden. It is the second largest party in Sweden and the hard lived rival of Socialdemokraterna about the power. Under the latest part of the last century Socialdemokraterna have been the dominant party in exeptions for some small periods when the Moderates have been ruling some few years, often interrupted periods. All times they have been ruling the swedish economy have been totally falled into ruins and Socialdemokraterna had to come back and fix everything Moderaterna caused. After the election 2006 Socialdemokraterna still had the most votes and was the biggest party, but the support for Moderaterna and Centerpartiet, the blue block increased, and thanks to the Alliance that Moderaterna created with the other blue party, the four blue parties worked as one, and together they were stronger than Socialdemokraterna. Thats the reason why Moderaterna could take the power in the Riksdag and is today ruling. Many people were dissapointed cause Moderaterna did not do a good job, they take from the poor and make life better and easier for people who already is wealthy. As all other times they ruled, this period is full of scandals and next election in 2010 do look very dark for the Moderaterna when the red block is increasing and Socialdemokraterna alone is bigger than all blue parties together.

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