Update 29 September 2014

Above, from article in Aftonbladet (Swedish) 29 September 2014

The Professors’ Blog notes with certain relief that today’s election at the Swedish Parliament (29 September 2014) chosen MP Urban Ahlin as Chairman of the Parliament, for this means that Mr Ahlin shall NOT be the next Sweden’s minister of Foreign Affairs (see texts below). In other words, there is still hope that Carl Bildt’s policy – alien to the interests of Sweden  and peace in Europe – will be replaced at the Foreign Office.

2nd update:

The Swedish Parliament is in the process of electing MP Björn Söder (SD) as one Vice Chairman. He is expected to be confirmed after the third round of voting, this afternoon. The head of the Left Party (Vänsterpartiet) Jonas Sjöstedt, declared in video-interview with Aftonbladet at the Parliament that they oppose that Sweden will be officially represented, even abroad, by someone that has expressed racist and homophobic stances.

______

The most outstanding finding in the recent Swedish national elections has been the impressive increasing of the Sweden Democrats Party (SD). SD is a right-wing conservative and nationalist political organization, who even the right-wing liberal paper DN categorized today as a “Fascist Party”. In fact, the party recorded a grown of voting-supporters of over 13 percent with regard to the past elections. This makes SD the absolute fastest growing political party in Sweden. Professors Blog’s have translated excerpts of this analysis by Kristina Lindquist [“Fascismen är Sveriges tredje största parti“], published in DN today 15 September 2014.

Professorsblogg adaptation of a graphic [Swedish] with the results of the voting, published by Expressen

Editor’s Introduction

What the power-shift in Sweden means in terms of foreign policy?

by Marcello Ferrada de Noli

In geopolitical terms, the change in the political coalition in power, led by the Social Democratic Party, will not mean – unfortunately – major changes in the international stance of Sweden. Although the bases for the foreign policy advocated by the other two members of the Center-Left coalition, namely the Greens  and the Left Party, is different from the social-democrats, these parties do not have the political strength to change the course of event of the new Swedish government.

On principal aspect in this regard is the continuing allegiance pf Sweden towards the imperialistic geopolitics of NATO.

The Social democrats have said they will go ahead with Carl Bildt’s initiative of offering NATO the soul of Sweden for manoeuvrings during peace-time, but also as a transit or landing facilities in the case of war.

Making things worse for the international credibility if Sweden, Mr Peter Hultqvist – the Social Democratic Party’s spokesman on defence issues – declared to Swedish Radio: The new NATO agreement is not a breach of “Sweden’s non-alignment stance”, because is Sweden who invites NATO; it is all under Swedish conditions.” [“Det bygger helt på att det är Sverige som bjuder in. Det är Sverige som avgör vad som ska hända. Det sker alltså på svenska villkor och strider inte mot alliansfriheten“.]. The Green Party has vividly opposed such initiative. In fact, this party has opposed similar other measures adopted by the Bildt/Reinfeldt government, but NEVER succeeded to go beyond statements to the media. As for the “Left Party”, formed by the ex Swedish “communists” and other progressive forces, they have even voted at the Parliament in support of Carl Bildt proposition of sending the Swedish Air Force a flotilla of Jas jet-fighters) to Libya under the command of NATO, practically the USA. All the Swedish political parties (in fact, only the Sweden Democrats opposed) agreed with such proposal of Carl Bildt, in harmony with Sweden’s pro-NATO stance. See on this regard my analysis “Swedish government affirms is not militarily aligned. Facts severely contradict“.[2]

The past Swedish government has counted with the staunch support of the Social Democratic party for every single military intervention abroad under the US command. That was the case for instance of Afghanistan. A fact that would guarantee the continuation of the same Cal Bildt’s foreign policy – in my opinion, a disaster for Sweden’s national interests – would be if the Löfgren government appoints Mr Urban Ahlin, a current spokesman for foreign affairs at the Social Democratic Party, as the new Swedish foreign minister. Mr Ahlin, similarly of the case Carl Bildt, has also been identified by WikiLeaks documents as a “secret visitant” to the Embassy of the United States in Stockholm, in search for advice and agreement.[1] Ahlin has denied that.

‘Fascism is Sweden’s third largest political party’

Excerpts from the article [Swedish] by Kristina Lindquist

“It is painful.

François Hollandes words after this spring’s European Parliament elections were heard as a tired grief. And with a strange surprise. Here? In France, which is “the home of human rights” had every fourth voter added his/her vote on Marine Le Pen and his national Front. The same right-wing extremists who described the gas chambers during the Holocaust as a “detail”, which would reinstate the death penalty and who expressed that Ebola can solve Europe’s “immigration problems” had become the country’s largest party. But a defeated president Hollande could still describe their proud nation as “land of the free”. This is not us, what we Swedes are is something else.”

—

“Twenty years is no time in politics. And the party which is today Sweden’s third largest, pursued for two decades ago campaigns with warnings to Swedish girls: “Shame not your race, your Sweden, your family and relatives.” In interviews, the party’s main representatives spoke about the unnatural and “non-Swedish” of adopting children from abroad: “it looks disgusting when you see two parents with an Indian kid between them.” in the early 1990s, at the Karl XII demonstrations, the Sweden Democrats went side by side with activists from the Nazi terror-group White Aryan Resistance.

But Sweden’s third largest party is tired of talking about the 20th century; they have decorated and cleaned out [their discourse], adapted themselves and really do not understand what you mean. When speaking of racial desecration and hate speech against adopted children is not politically possible, they begin to count the dark-haired babies in Malmö, and speak of Muslims as the greatest foreign threat since World War II. When hatred towards Muslims is not working in Stockholm, the Sweden Democrats switch their hate-object to Romanian beggars. When it becomes impossible even for the Sweden Democrats to avoid looking into the political carnage in Syria. they utter the message of increasing aid to the refugees there, and diminish the aid to the Arabs with violent genes here. speak the language with more care aid to refugees there and less Arabs with “violent genes ‘ here. You see, we are prepared to pay to avoid seeing them in Sweden.”

—

“Today is a time  in the lives of the Sweden Democrats when they punishes journalistic coverage with the closing out newspapers that reviewed their election-campaign. Today is a time when MPs as Kent Ekeroth may publicly discuss the issue of “stopping” the media and writes: “Haha. We do it in due course. “

There’s a word for this: Fascism. And a situation where thirteen percent of Swedish voters adds its vote to a fascist party cannot be described as anything other than a national crisis. So far, the Swedish self-image stops the way towards that insight. This is not us, what we are is something else.

In the same way that François Hollande, speaking about his increasingly Brown France as his “land of the free”, Sweden can retain its self-image as a European exception. First, as one of the few countries with no Fascists in Parliament. Then, as one of the few countries in which the fascists in Parliament were so few and that were shut out from power.”

Texts above by Kristina Lindquist. [4] Translation, The Professors’ Blog

References

[1] M. Ferrada de Noli, “Swedish government affirms is not militarily aligned. Facts severely contradict“. Professors’ Blog,

[2] M. Ferrada de Noli, “Om Sverigedemokraternas utrikes politik är ”osvensk” vad är då Socialdemokraternas? Och kampen för Assange och Mannings frihet fortsätter.”

[4] Kristina Lindquist, “Fascismen är Sveriges tredje största parti“, DN, 15 September 2014.