Gothenburg aka Göteborg is dotted with placards and posters of different political parties especially stitched to the poles in the squares and on the streets. The eight main political parties, who have representation in the Swedish parliament called ‘Riksdagen’, are in the fray in addition to Feminist Initiative (FI) and Medborgerlig Samling.
Sweden has 20 MePs (Member of European Parliament: MEP, or MeP) in the 751member European Parliament located in Brussels the capital of Belgium. But Sweden will have 21 MePs when the UK will leave UK officially. According to the European Union’s parliament, “At the moment the Parliament boasts 751 seats, which is the maximum number allowed by the EU treaties. Following the decision, 27 of the UK’s 73 seats will be redistributed to other countries, while the remaining 46 seats will be kept for future enlargements. This means the number of MEPs to be elected will be 705.”
The counting of votes (electoral democracy) to the European Parliament is based on D’Hondt system of proportional representation.
FI has no representation in Swedish parliament but has its presentation in the EU parliament. Its candidate is also Stina Svensson and in the outgoing EU parliament, FI is represented by Soraya Post. Stina Svensson is active politician and outlined in an earlier interview to focus on affordable housing for all and to tackle structural discrimination in the society.
Göteborgs Stad (the City Council of Gothenburg or municipality) is alerting the European citizens in Gothenburg where to vote and how to vote, and the voting process has already began, though the official day of polling is on Sunday, 26 May.
Social Democratic Party (S), the grandold party of Sweden, and the single largest party in Riksdagen which leads the current government led by Stefan Löfven, is fighting the elections with the slogan: ‘För demokrati och jämlikhet! Mot klyftor och extremism’: For democracy and equality! Against rifts and extremism. Last time, it got 6 out of 20 seats from Sweden in the European Parliament, followed by Moderate Party (Moderaterna) with 4 MePs and the Green Party secured 2 seats.
The far-right and anti-immigrant party, Swedish Democratic Party (SD), is in the race with the slogan ‘MINIMAL BRUSSELS, MORE SWEDEN’. ‘It is the differences between our countries and the exchange of culture, knowledge and ideas that created the living Europe,’ notes the party. ‘We need to work together to fight crime and terrorism so that Europe can be safe. We need to work together to nurture entrepreneurship so that jobs and welfare are secured. We need to work together to protect our nature so that Europe remains alive and well.’
But SD wants that ‘Sweden should be able to decide on our national border and we think it is unacceptable that our tax money finances other countries’ poorly managed economies and banks. We are opposed to moving power over Sweden from Swedish voters to non-elected bureaucrats in a remote Brussels. It scares us that the European bureaucrats want to take control of the free Internet…and ultimately turn Europe’s countries into a single massive EU state.’
In letters sent by the SD to voters, it said that it wants to: Take back Sweden’s right to protect its own borders, Strengthen the EU’s external border controls, Swedish taxpayers money to go for Swedish welfare, Stop the EU’s weapons’ directive; Commonly fight against terrorism, Islamism and other extremism; Counteract Islamization of Europe, Stop EU plans for obsession with migrants, and also to regulate Swedish hunting rights to be regulated in Sweden – not Brussels among others. And, it wants to strengthen the Nordic countries’ common voice in the EU and to ‘create a united front against the Russian aggression’.
