Election

This post has nothing to do with what I've been up to, but its an important thing happening in Sweden...

This past Sunday was the general election in Sweden (they have one every 4 years). The right-wing coalition (The Alliance- made up of the Moderate Party, the Centre Party, the Liberal People's Party, and the Christian Democrats ), which was in power last term and led by Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, technically won, in that they recieved the most senate seats (173 out of 349), although they did not get a majority.
The liberal colaition (The Red-Greens- made up of the Social Democrats, the Left Party and the Green party) got 156 seats in the senate.

The other twenty seats went to the ultra-conservative Sweden Democrats, who strongly oppose immigration and gay rights issues, such as adoption rights for homosexual couples. The party also has Nazi roots and their policies are still overtly racist. This is the first time the Swedish Democrats have made it into the parliament, and all the Swedish people I have talked to find their presence pretty frightening.

The upside is, now the Alliance is attempting to cooperate with the Green Party in order to gain a majority. As of now, the Green Party is opposed to collaboration, because of the Moderate Party's lack of attention to the environment. My globalization professor was saying, however, that if the Moderates offer to implement serious environmental policy in return for allegiance, maybe they will change their mind....

One thing that is interesting, that I was talking to my host family about, is that socially, all parties (except the Sweden Democrats) are liberal. Gay marriage is legal here, most parties are in favor of equal rights for homosexual couples (adoption is a hot issue right now), and they are all pro-choice. Most of the debate comes down to issues of taxes and social services.

It is cool to be here at an important political time. Seeing the ways Swedish politics contrast with American politics is really interesting.