Reform In Sweden
Sweden's ruling Social Democrat party has been tossed from office by moderates who promise to reform the welfare state and cut taxes. The victory was a narrow one, however, and the Social Democrats have vowed to "keep attacking". Why does this sound all too familiar?
Moderate party leader Fredrik Reinfeldt declared victory as near-complete results gave him a 1% lead.
Minutes later, Prime Minister Goran Persson accepted defeat and said he and the government would resign, ending 12 years of Social Democrat rule.
The centre-left party has led Sweden for all but 10 of the past 89 years.
Mr Reinfeldt, who had promised to cut taxes and reform Sweden's cradle-to-grave welfare state, took to the stage in front of supporters with his arms raised.
"We ran in the election as the New Moderates, we have won the election as the New Moderates and we will also together with our Alliance friends govern Sweden as the New Moderates," he said.
Mr Persson told his supporters he would step down as party leader in March 2007.
"We have lost the election but we are not a beaten party," he said. "We will never accept the right's change of system - we will hit back!"
Key issues in the election included whether Sweden's generous welfare model must reform for it to survive in the global economy.
Opinion polls had put the centre-right alliance consistently neck-and-neck with the Social Democrats.
The latest poll, published before voting began, put the challengers a few points ahead.
The new model for the left globally appears to be to continue to fight the lost election, regardless of result or cost to society. Call it the American model. Call it governmental paralysis as well. This is a horrible tactic. Instead of working within the system, this is a way to disrupt the system.
Politics, World news | Gaius Monday, 18 September , 2006
By Roland Hesz, Monday, 18 September , 2006 @ 7:08 am
“The new model for the left globally appears to be to continue to fight the lost election, regardless of result or cost to society.”
I would reshape it: The new model for the losing side globally appears to be to continue to fight the lost election, regardless of result or cost to society.
The right does exactly the same thing in my country for example, like they did last time, and they did exactly the same thing in the neighbouring countries.
The left did the same.
It seems that these days no party can say: Ok, we lost, we will prepare for the next match.