Vitalizing the Swedish Democracy – A Political Suicide

Before Christmas, a proposal for the Swedish Centre Party’s new party programme went public. Loyal party members as well as media went bananas due to the distinct neoliberal tone. The ideas of free immigration, polygamy and flat tax were indeed quite new and provocative in a Swedish context. But the programme also challenged two sacred cows in Swedish politics – the old one of consensus and the current one of opinion polls.

The Winning Concept of Not Acting

One of the distinctions of Nordic politics is seeking consensus, where Sweden might be the most extreme example. The welfare state is closely associated to the idea of consensus, a tendency to avoid controversies and a will to show solidarity to your fellow man. Recently, a discussion on the back-side of consensus as the leading star in the political landscape has sparked. A flamboyant will for harmony and compromise can lead to a situation where many decisions are made behind closed doors, especially the tricky and controversial ones. In worst case, becoming patronizing in hiding the unpleasant truth.

The politics of the polls, when the core business of a political party is to follow the public opinion polls and form the political agenda thereafter, on the contrary, is a global phenomenon that has made a strong penetration  in Sweden since the historical parliamentary election in 2006. It was the year when the centre-right Alliance for Sweden won and the Moderate Party took over the social democrat slogan worker’s party. Since then, all the parties have been moved towards the middle field, but the Left Party and Sweden Democrats.  The recently chosen Social Democratic Party leader Stefan Löfvén has been talking about the importance of growth and wants to create a business plan for Sweden.

The trend has created “responsible” parties that ask the public opinion first and then acts. The every-week opinion polls have strengthened the trend and have made the politicians extremely careful in what they say and do. Together with the tradition of consensus, the politics of polls have created a situation where the best way for a politician to get re-elected is not to act. In case you really need to do something, do what the opinion polls show that you should do. Then suddenly this party wants to talk about ideas, new and bold ones.

Internal Birth Pains

Despite the fact that approximately 220 local party chapters and 10,000 individuals have been involved in drafting the programme, even the party itself is divided.  A local chapter of the party has demanded to scrap the new proposal on open borders and warns that “Sweden will be overrun by illiterate clans”. Lööf cut short her holiday last week and went public on explaining the ideas. She declared that the programme is a long-term vision and cannot realistically be put in place even within the next ten years. An example of typical consensus-oriented politics of polls is the Centre Party MEP Kerstin Lundgren’s opinion piece that states the party should be something “green, libertarian and for fellowship, for sustainable development at home and globally”. Saying nothing and everything at the same time, hoping for maximum election turnout with utmost freedom to act and compromise. Snooze.

In the best of worlds, the new distinct liberal agenda will help the party to win in the long run. Twenty years ago, No one would have believed that the Green Party would become one of the most powerful parties in Sweden. They were perceived as a one issue party consisting of a bunch of ideologists that did not understand the big politics. Today it’s the other parties that have followed the Green Party ideas of a sustainable society. In the short run, though, the Centre Party might be close to committing a political suicide. According to the latest opinion polls, the Centre Party would not come in to the parliament if there was an election today. The voter sympathies are positioned under four percent, which is the minimum a party has to get. Annie Lööf, the party leader, is one of the least popular of the Swedish party leaders. But the harsh truth is that a rural party core voters with feet stuck deep in the agrarian soil will soon be an ex-party if the current demographic trend continues. The party has to find a way to build a bridge between the new refreshing ideas and the party’s humbling rural legacy of soft and societal values.

Looking Forward

The Swedish editorials have been carefully positive about the new party programme as an initiative that could vitalize the democracy through new ideas and modern political alternatives. Until today, no Swedish party has dared to challenge the Swedish Democrats with a totally opposite alternative of free immigration. Swedish politics need a party that is looking forward; not backwards, not just living in the moment and by the means of current polls, but seeing the challenges and possibilities of the future. As one of the leading political columnists wrote recently, there’s a good chance that history will show that the Centre Party was right. Although the party itself might be history when that day comes. In the middle of February the party board will publish their version of the programme and the party convent will decide the final version in March. Northernwille will follow the debate with a great interest. It was long time ago the Swedish politics was as exciting and rich of new ideas as now.

How Fluent Do You Need to Be in Swedish to Clean Toilets?

Sweden’s performance in several international studies on immigrant employment rates has been less than satisfactory. It’s not only hard to get a job if you were born outside Sweden, it is even more difficult to get an occupation on par with a foreign diploma.  A large number of immigrants support themselves with low-skilled jobs as taxi-drivers, cleaners etcetera. That window of opportunity might get shut in front of newcomers to Sweden.

Big, well-reputed – and dirty

This week, Swedish media has reported on dirty toilets in Swedish hospitals. SALAR – Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions – audited patients’ satisfaction in a recent survey and the results were alarming. 20 percent of the patients said that the hospital premises were not clean during their most recent visit to the hospital.

The worst sinner was one of the largest and most well known hospitals in Sweden and in Europe: Karolinska University Hospital. Almost 30 per cent of the patients said that the premises were not clean enough. Only last year, staff at Karolinska pointed out the inadequate level of cleaning. The hospital management took immediate action and changed the specification for the public procurement for cleaning. One of the changes in the hospitals’ cleaning policy was to raise required language skills of the cleaning staff. Apparently, language skills did not have an immediate sanitary effect as hospitals remain dirty.

So, how fluent should your Swedish be when cleaning toilets at Karolinska? Or is it the doctors, as in the major Swedish news daily Dagens Nyheter story coverage, who will be cleaning toilets in the future?

High thresholds in the Swedish labor market

Sweden ranks high when studying the unemployment rate of foreign-born Swedes relative to the native-born citizens. For many newcomers in Sweden, a contract of employment in the cleaning business has been the only way to enter the Swedish labor market. Studies show that even immigrants with good skills in Swedish and with similar characteristics as a native-born Swede, have a poorer labor market performance than a native-born.

In Sweden, as elsewhere, employers do not seem to trust in foreign educational qualifications and work experience. What employers recognize and reward seems to be Swedish work experience and successful integration tends to be associated with early contact with the labor market.

Arbetsförmedlingen, the Swedish Employment Office, is well aware of the importance of early contact with the labor market. Angeles Bermudez-Svankvist, the Director General, has even called the Swedish integration policy a catastrophe. Bermudez has acknowledged the need for a change in attitude among the employers and might also make a call to Karolinska University Hospital. According to her, it is important to get a job to be able to learn and practice Swedish.

Global enterprises, domestic labor market

There are many successful examples of Swedish enterprises going global, like IKEA and H&M. Unfortunately, global work experience or education from abroad is not always a success factor on the Swedish labor market. This applies both for persons born inside and outside the Swedish border. According to SACO – the Swedish Trade Union Confederation of Professional Associations – experience from work or studies abroad is not always appreciated by the Swedish employers. This is especially true for women who want to work in the public sector. Even work experience from the EU capital Brussels may scare the Swedish Employers.

The obsession in study merits from the Swedish school system might seem a bit odd for an outsider. During the last ten years, the Swedish school system has been in a freefall according to several international school studies like PISA. Even the level of education for teachers in Swedish schools has gone down dramatically since the 1990’s. According to a newly published international comparison, the situation is getting even worse. If not for poor study results, what is it then that the Swedish employers appreciate with study merits from the Swedish school system?

The Swedish Minister of Integration, Erik Ullenhag, has said that the Swedish collectivistic tradition might have made it more difficult for immigrant labor integration, a public sector variant of the classical “it’s my way or the highway”. Northernwille would also like to give a hint to Karolinska about Språkstöd för nyanlända,  an EU funded project where immigrants helped other immigrants to work and learn Swedish at the same time – with the help of a mobile phone application. It’s possible to work and study at the same time, especially when the work vocabulary is limited and you’ve got many colleagues to practice with.

New Small Nokias On Their Way Up

When Nokia announced that thousands of people will have to leave the company in Finland, it sent a panic wave all the way from Helsinki to the polar circle. The Finns thought that the good days were over. But it might just be a new chapter in the success story of this little Northern country and will continue to diversify the Finnish commercial and industrial life. And the first candidate is already here.

A group of former Nokia employees has been working with a new smart phone company since autumn 2011. Jolla Mobile focuses on building phones using the Linux-based MeeGo operating system. The startup has taken funding from international and domestic private investors and is also part of the Nokia Bridge program, which provides capital and resources to ex-Nokia employees to help burden the blow of layoffs.

Success through cooperation

The CEO of Jolla Mobile, Jussi Hurmola, is not looking to copy the success of Nokia. He says that creating an ecosystem is about co-operating, it’s not about going alone.  So far things have been happening fast. Since the start in 2011, Jolla Mobile has been recruiting a lot and has 50 staff today, and more will be coming. The company estimates that they will be about 100 people by the end of the year. More than half of those people are from Nokia’s MeeGo organisation.

The latest news in July was that Jolla Mobile signed a sales and distribution agreement with China’s largest cell phone retail chain D.Phone. The plan is to launch an online app store featuring MeeGo software to back up the release of its first smart phone later this year.

Finnish storytelling as its best

As the Nordic technology website ArcticStartup writes, Jolla embodies all the elements of great storytelling: abandonment, redemption, and huge (but surmountable) obstacles to overcome. Northernwille would even add a collective enthusiasm and a great finger-top feeling for modern communication that has created a hype à la Steve Jobs with the help of social media.

In one generation, Finland has made a beautiful journey from a poor and isolated country to one of the world’s most competitive countries. After the WWII, Finland had vast war reparations to pay to the Soviet Union and it was a huge financial burden on a country whose economy depended on timber, agriculture and some mining. The heavy war debt forced Finland to become more industrialized and after the recession in the 1990s, the country transformed to a welfare state built on science and technology as well as the high level of education and rapid internationalization.

Global leading edge talents

The Finns are used to turn crisis to a success. Jolla is the first example of what the highly educated and well experienced former employees can do if they go global. The next start-up could come from the Northern smart city of Oulu. Oulutalents is a local team consisting of 700 global professionals on the leading edge with touch and LTE phones, Linux and Wimax tablets and have a world class technical competence on all major wireless technologies. Does anyone honestly think that these guys would miss the train?

No More Tears – Enough is Enough

The former employees at the Finnish flagship company Nokia might just be listening to the classic break up song by Donna Summer and Barbra Streisand. At the moment there’s not much sunshine in the once so prosperous and dynamic Nokia sites. But as in the song, to end a bad relationship is sometimes the only good thing to do and is a condition for something new and better.

 

On Thursday, Nokia announced a profit warning and the decision to cut 10,000 jobs, 3,700 of them in Finland. The job cuts are set to raise unemployment in Salo to about 20 per cent. At the moment, there’s not much left of the former gloria of the Finnish success story. But if you’ve been talking to the Nokia employees during the last two-three years, this might happened a lot sooner. There has been dissatisfaction for a long time.

 

Don’t pretend – when it’s over, it’s over

The workers outside the factory in Salo, expressed distrust in the company, as things were not announced earlier. Despite Elop’s promises in the beginning of the year, the Salo factory will not survive its biggest crisis in the company’s history. This week, the company’s CEO Stephen Elop repeated previous assurances that Nokia is a profoundly Finnish company, whose head offices will remain in Finland. After the final cut backs in Salo, most of the former employees suspect that even the head quarters will move abroad.

Microsoft and Lumia – the last chance

Elop has said that while the situation is getting worse at the moment, the company is, nevertheless, selling more Lumia phones, which suggests that the company is moving in the right direction. But how will the company reach the leader position again? During the two-day board meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, all the board members presented their future vision with one word. Marko Ahtisaari, the son of the former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, had obviously read Steve Jobs’ authorized biography, as had the others. A love for design, passion, meaningfulness and consumer perspective were some of the visions expressed in the meeting. Elop chose simply success. Hopefully the board’s vision will match the ambitions of Microsoft, known as the antithesis of Apple and Jobs.

Two Political Blocks, Two Visions for Smart Growth

All the European economies are worried about growth and employment in the coming years. For most of the countries, the pressure to save and cut back is intense, without any possibility for investments. The Baltic economies have managed to repair their public finances and are back on the growth track again, after a long series of brutal economy cuts. Some rare exceptions, such as Sweden, have the luxury of time and money to be able to choose between several future paths.

Sweden is one of the rare exceptions in the current European crisis with its relatively prosperous public finances. Mainly thanks to the lessons learned from the Nordic bank disaster in the 90’s. Even though the two main political blocks agree on sober economic policies, there are some differences in their view on the next ten years period. It’s also a dissimilarity that might have an effect on the Swedish implementation of Europe 2020.

The governing centre-right wing alliance believes in the growth effect of lowering income taxes and reducing taxes on services, such as restaurant VAT. The red-green opposition is more willing to bet on stimuli, such as research funding. The Social Democratic Party’s leader Stefan Löfven made his first political initiative in the field of research and development, also together with his Nordic party colleagues. The Green Party is keen on investing in research that could make it possible to end the nuclear power era for good.

Will the next Swedish parliamentary election in 2014 be determined by the different visions for economic growth?  Sweden has traditionally been in the top league in the total R&D spending, mostly thanks to the big global enterprises such as Volvo, Saab, Scania, Ericsson and AstraZeneca. Now these enterprises have started to relocate their R&D divisions. The Commission has proposed in the latest country-specific recommendation on Sweden’s 2012 national reform programme that these issues should be addressed in the new research and innovation bill due in autumn 2012. This should be a wake-up call for all the Swedish politicians.

The Danish EU Presidency – a Shift from Manager to Assistant

The Treaty of Lisbon changed the role of the rotating EU presidency and a new post was established, the one of President of the European Council. The ongoing Danish EU presidency demonstrates what this has meant in practice.

The Swedish Institute of Political Studies (SIEPS) arranged a seminar on the topic at the end of May and had invited a research team from the European University of Florence to present their evaluation of the Danish EU presidency. Director General of the Department for EU-coordination from the Swedish Prime Minister’s Office, Johan Krafft, was one of the invited speakers and could evaluate the report from his experience of the current EU presidency.

The Danish EU presidency has had four themes: responsible, dynamic, green and safe EU. The evaluation showed that Denmark has been successful in creating a responsible and dynamic presidency. The issues of green and safe EU have not been prioritized or there has not been room for them in the times of an economic crisis. Even if the Danes have achieved a greening of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to some degree. The Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Villy Søvndal, has also had an ambition to assist Catherine Ashton and help her to put her role of High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security policy on the map.

Both the research team and DG Krafft agreed on a successful Danish EU presidency and described it as well prepared, focused and well organized. The institutional complexity followed by the Treaty of Lisbon has become one of the main tasks of the rotating EU presidency to take care of. The complexity and entry of the new and the small EU members has institutionalized the trio presidency and transformed it to a team work instead of national flagship projects. A representative from the Embassy of Cyprus in Stockholm admitted that the country would not have the capacity to carry out the whole presidency by itself. An unforeseen and well needed boost for the dynamics of the European co-operation?

Will Sweden Go From Best in Class to Below Average?

At the moment, Sweden is one of the rare examples in the EU with a stable political climate, great public finances, spending savvy citizens and optimistic enterprises. So far, so good. There is one critical variable though that should be and is raising concern among politicians and media. That of school and education. 

Take a look at the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and you’ll see that the current economic situation in Europe is quite well reflected in the study results. Northern Europe is best in class, while the Southern and Eastern parts of the continent are more or less halting. For Sweden, it may not seem catastrophic to be an average performer at the moment but compared to the results from year 2000, one should get worried. If the trend continues, Sweden will perform below OECD average year 2020.

Some recent events have reinforced the image of the Swedish school system at a crisis. A greater administrative burden, less time for planning classes, low salaries and a tough working environment are some of the reasons that have led to many teachers leaving the class room to find another occupation. The Swedish education for teachers has been strongly criticized and factor in the elements above, this has led to a situation with only a few applicants for teachers’ education letting practically everyone in. At the same time, the Swedish engineering industry has started up own vocational education programs because the existing  educational programs are inadequate for their needs. The most recent example of this is Volvo.  

In a recent case of abuse, the charges were dropped against a pupil that had assaulted a teacher. The court decided that it’s an occupation similar to the police force where this kind of situations might occur. Furthermore, Swedish pupils more often hire help with their school assignments. In some of the low performing EU countries this has been a practice a long time and the pupils have been forced to either hire private teachers or pay bribes to reach good grades. Is Sweden heading towards a similar system and a school under average? Watch out Sweden, good luck smart growth and EU2020.

A Political Rock Star

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ongoing Finnish presidential election is already historical. Due to the Green Party’s candidate Pekka Haavisto. When Haavisto and Sauli Niinistö from the National Coalition Party went to the second round, it was in fact the first time since 1982 the president will not be a Social Democrat. Neither has a Green Party candidate ever gone to the second round in a Finnish presidential election, nor has an openly homosexual candidate run for president.
Niinistö has been the biggest favourite to become the next president in Finland many years before the election in 2012. Still in autumn 2011, the polls showed that Niinistö would directly be elected to President and no second round would be needed. At the same time, Haavisto had started his campaign and with some 5 per cent support in the opinion polls. At the moment, when there are four days left to the second round vote, Haavisto is up to 37 per cent against Niinistö’s 63 per cent.
Never has a presidential election engaged the Finns as the ongoing one. Social media might be the biggest reason for Pekka Haavisto’s success in the first round. Not only has his Facebook group over 100 000 followers but also a big amount of non-party members has been campaigning for Haavisto in rather unconventional ways. Some examples are organizing a Pekka-party, making a YouTube film with Lego characters and gathering a flash mob on the railway station. The most visible one was a music concert on Finland’s biggest sports arena where one of the participants was a popular music group from the 00´s that made a comeback for one night.
The homosexuality of Haavisto has been a big topic in the Finnish coffee shops. The fact that his boyfriend is a 20-year younger hairdresser from Ecuador has also contributed to the phenomena that also the candidate spouses have been strongly exposed in the media. After the success of the far-right True Finns in the latest parliamentary election, many Finns were worried about the reputation of Finland as a modern and open-minded country. Now it seems like the liberal Finland has spoken, whether it’s Haavisto or Niinistö that will be the next president.

The Norway Oslo Shooting Sent Shockwaves In The Nordic Countries

The Oslo bombing and shooting in Norway has sent the whole world into a state of shock after one of the worst terrorist attacks in the 21^st century. The Nordic countries are in a deep sorrow and united in their peaceful determination to defend the political systems known for their openness and democracy.  At the same time, discussions have started in the Finnish and Swedish media about the parliamentary extreme right-wing parties and their political discourse. In Sweden, the party leaders have kept a low profile but in Finland the Oslo tragedy might get consequences for the domestic politics.

All of the Nordic extreme right-wing parties have reacted in similar way by saying that one should not make politics of the Oslo shooting but respect the dead and their families and friends. Anna-Lena Lodenius, journalist and author and expert on right-wing extremism, wrote in the leading Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter that “even though the Nordic anti-immigration right-wing parties in some sense accept the rules of the parliamentary political system, they do at the same time use a political discourse that can appeal to persons like Breivik.” The second biggest newspaper in Sweden, Svenska Dagbladet, says that it’s cheap to make politics out of the Norwegian tragedy. The Swedish political parties have been more subdued in their discussions about the similarity between the political rhetoric of Sweden democrats.”

It appears if individual Sweden Democrats have been most prone to cover the subject in their blogs, making politics out of the Norwegian tragedy. Among others, a member of the Swedish parliament and the party leaders’ press secretary discussed the role of multicultural society in the Oslo shooting. These persons have already been condemned by leader of the Sweden Democrats, Jimmie Åkesson.

In Finland, the party political discussion has been more open in the media concerning the True Finns political discourse and the extreme groups that have their home in the party. The Green League and Swedish People’s Party of Finland and Social Democrats have been most explicit in their critique towards the True Finns.

Ville Niinistö, the party leader of the Green League, holds Timo Soini responsible for the hatred atmosphere in the country. Tino Singh, active in the Swedish People’s Party, says that the rhetoric of the Finnish politicians and groups Immigration critical rhetoric of politicians and groups is exactly the same as the one of Breiviks. Erkki Tuomioja, the social democratic Finnish foreign minister, has wished that Timo Soini would clearly condemn the extreme groups in the party. Eva Biaudet, the Ombudsman for Minorities of Finland, has said that the Finnish law might need to be changed when it comes to hate speech.

Besides the party leader Timo Soini, Jussi Halla-aho has been in the focal point, partly because of Breivik quoting him in his manifest, partly due to his engagement in several extreme anti-immigration networks. On Saturday Mikael Jungner, party secretary of the Social Democratic Party of Finland, demanded that Jussi Halla-Aho should resign from his post as chairman of the administrative committee in the Finnish parliament.

As Norwegians mourn their dead, they insist that they will not give up the openness of their society

Almedalen Week Could Be a European Festival of Politics

Olof Palme, a legendary former Swedish party leader and prime minister, was a passionate agitator in Sweden and abroad.  More than 40 years ago, he was standing on a wagon in Visby on the Swedish island Gotland and held a spontaneous speech in the park called Almedalen. This was a beginning for one of the biggest political festivals in the world.

Since then, Almedalen week has grown to a gigantic open-air lobby-fair with approximately 1,400 seminars and 11,000 visitors. From being a playground for the Swedish party leaders, it’s an arena for the political and other elites from different parts of the society. Visby is both an ideal place for the engaged citizens but also inaccessible for the ordinary man because of the small size and limited amount of hotel rooms. As well as you can meet all the ministers participating in panel discussions and seminars, you will even find enterprises, NGOs, universities, think-tanks and many more agitating and campaigning for their ideas. Not to forget the PR agencies who plan and organize most of the activities and events during the Almedalen week.

So if you’re interested in Swedish or Nordic politics, the Almedalen week is really the place to be. This year, not only all the Swedish ministers, but also the Finnish foreign minister/EU-minister Alexander Stubb attended Visby. Some of the seminars are already held in English, for example the Baltic Sea program and the Europe House i.e. the EU Commission and EU parliament in Sweden. Hopefully we’ll see even some EU high level representatives in Almedalen week next year. The national, regional and local policy representatives and interest organizations should meet their European counterparts and EU-level policy makers. In the times of turmoil and citizen alienation in EU, the officials and politicians should go native and Almedalen week would be an easy way to get started.