Whatever happened to Sweden?
For social democrats like me, Sweden has long been an inspirational social and political model and, in most surveys of the world’s best countries, Sweden is one of the top nations.
The Social Democrats have ruled Sweden for 65 of the past 78 years and are credited with setting up the country’s generous welfare state and fostering the nation’s internationalism and tolerance.
Yet, in this weekend’s general election, the Centre-Right four-party Alliance for Sweden, which currently makes up the government, won the largest block of seats in the assembly: 172 out of a total of 349. It is the first time a conservative government has won re-election in Sweden for about a century.
Even more worrying , the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats have won 20 seats. An important part of the explanation is the rise in the immigrant population in Sweden which now comprises 14% of the country’s population of 9.4 million.