An Alien in Sweden

A blog about my move from England and my new life in Sweden.
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Posts Tagged ‘election’

I’m finding the political setup so confusing!

Monday, September 20th, 2010

I have only just turned the Swedish election results on. I can understand the emotions felt by some about how the Sweden Democrats fared yesterday but I am in no position to comment simply due to the fact that I do not live there yet.

When it comes to Swedish politics I know more than most outside of Sweden, I have been studying and reading the entire history of the make up of how Sweden in governed and I will be honest I find it all a little baffling.

This year in the UK we had the first ever coalition government since the early 1970’s and even now there seems to be cracks happening. Both parties that run the UK coalition government are finding that the political promises and pledges mentioned in their manifestos are quickly turned into a u-turn as an agreement has to be reached.

But here we now have a situation in Sweden where there are possibly five parties that can from a coalition. This surely cannot be good for the way the country is run. I would love to know more about how people perceive the way Swedish politics are going. How did you vote? Did your party perform well, would you like a change to the Swedish political system?

As for the Swedish Democrats I think I will bite my tounge on this matter as that is a whole blog entry on its own and those who know me well will agree that I think this is a very bad thing for Sweden.

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30 Days to Go – Understanding the Swedish political system

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

Apart from the Royal wedding this year the two biggest other events that are happening are of course my move to Sweden (joke) and the forthcoming General Election.

If there is one thing that I have studied more about Sweden than the language it is the political setup in Sweden. After all these are the people that are elected to run the country, make the laws and govern the land. Now it would be pointless to vote in next month’s election as I won’t officially be a resident nor will I know enough about the party’s manifestos to place a worthwhile tick.

The current PM is Patrick Reinfelt and I have been monitoring his party’s policies. I think that the current government has done a good job but like here in the UK many want a change.

There is a huge sweeping change happening across the political map of Europe. Many countries are changing their political parties to emerge from the ashes of the financial climate that has affected so many. For the first time since the early 1970’s there is a coalition government in the UK and three months in the changes that the Conservative/Liberal democrat alliance have announced have been harsh, but needed in order to boost the economy back to what it once was.

The Red-Green opposition seem to have a lot of ideas and policies that I would deem suitable for my own personal lifestyle but that would be a statement that I could so easily change as I have only ever experienced Sweden on a short term visiting basis. When I do become a resident there, then no doubt there will be things that I would agree and of course disagree with.

It’s very important to not only learn about the historical and cultural side of a new country but also to understand the political system and how it operates. Many find politics a very boring issue but for me it’s something that is vital in order to survive in life no matter where one lives.

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