Looking good, dressing smart - Meet the new conservative prime minister of Sweden, Mr. Reinfeldt

www.guardian.co.uk ^ | 09/18/2006 | The Guardian

[WesternCulture]

Swedish centre-right alliance wins wafer-thin election victory

Sweden's centre-right opposition secured a narrow victory in yesterday's general election, ending 12 years of rule by the Social Democrats, who have governed for 65 of the last 74 years. Fredrik Reinfeldt, the next prime minister, declared victory shortly before 11pm after a nail-biting finish which gave his four-party Alliance for Sweden a wafer-thin parliamentary majority. His group was on course to win 178 seats in the 349-seat parliament - seven ahead of the Social Democrats and its allies on the left. With 99.7% of Sweden's districts counted, Mr Reinfeldt's alliance led with 48.1%, compared with 46.2% for the left. "The Swedish people have voted in an alliance government," Mr Reinfeldt told cheering, flag-waving supporters. Within minutes, the outgoing prime minister, Goran Persson, conceded defeat and announced that he would resign as leader of the Social Democrats in March.

[PGalt]

Listen to the world slowly turning...

[Robert A. Cook, PE]

Funny.

The unbiased and ever-so-profesional western MSM did NOT give a chance.

[Southack]

Yet another anti-Iraq-War government falls. Sweden was against the Iraq War back in 2003, now that government has been kicked to the curb.

Likewise, the anti-Iraq-War government in Germany just lost the last election. Chirac is likewise losing in France, and Martin just lost to Harper in Canada.

In contrast, pro-War Howard in Australia just won re-election, as did PM Blair in the UK, Koizumi's party in Japan, and President Bush in the U.S.

Yet the news media will say that being for the war is unpopular...while ignoring that being against the war is a pretty good way to lose an election worldwide.

[WesternCulture]

"Listen to the world slowly turning..."

If Sweden continues to evolve in this direction, Sweden will inevitably develop to an even more superior economy and an example the rest of Europe can't deny..

Today the swedish GDP/capita is already a solid 25% higher than the EU average and a trip to affluent Scandinavia, whether it's Sweden, Denmark or Norway will make even well off americans feeling poor.

Why is the the rest of the world unable to compete?
Maybe because somewhere along the line, non-scandinavians gave up on on work ethics while we did not.

Shame on you.

[sageb1]

Sweden, Britain, Germany, Canada, Australia, and more. A little bit at a time. Has the EU commented?

[goldstategop]

No, its not. The Moderates will just manage the welfare state better.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus

[sageb1]

I must be missing something. I didn't think PGalt's comment was negative. I, for one, am pleased with the results.

[WesternCulture]

You're not missing anything of vital importance.

Let's celebrate!

Personally, I admit I'm drunk as hell!

Tomorrow I have to work though, but I start in the afternoon, so no worry. Schluurp!!

[Incorrigible]

whether it's Sweden, Denmark or Norway will make even well off americans feeling poor.

Not to rain on your parade but if the price of nordic oil drops back down to $30, we'll see about this super economy in Scandinavia.

[Incorrigible]

Personally, I admit I'm drunk as hell!

OK. That explains things!

Enjoy sweet victory!

[TheLion]

[PGalt]

My heritage is Scandanavian also. My grandmother came over from Finland and the men in the family worked the copper mines of Keewenaw Peninsula in Upper Michigan.

I consider your post GREAT NEWS!

Welcome aboard and I would like to join you for one more but I just finished a beer and am off to bed.

[WesternCulture]

"Not to rain on your parade but if the price of nordic oil drops back down to $30, we'll see about this super economy in Scandinavia."

My answer:

Sweden doesen't have oil (Norway does though). Our nominal GDP/capita is more or less the same as that of the US, while GDP at PPP (purchasing power parity) is only three quarters of the US equivalent.

Now, which country has the most luxury cars like flashy BMW's, SAAB's, Mercedes's, Volvo's and Audi's and boast citizens owning a well built nice house + a summer residence as well?

GDP at PPP sucks.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Exactly how big of a change is this?

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

The BBC did.....

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Only the Norwegian economy is heavily dependent on oil.

[WesternCulture]

Hard working scandinavian nations like Finland have no oil whatsoever but get no credit at all.

Good hearted swedish folks acknowledge what you finns have done for your own nation as well as the nation of Sweden.

We salute you!!

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

The alcohol? PGalt is the one of Finnish extraction.

[sageb1]

lol!

[RobbyS]

They practically invented the cell phone.

[Tailback]

My Brother in law is Danish and he and I often talk politics. In the reports I always see the reason for the results in the Swedish election as backlash for high taxes. Could the high numbers of Muslim "refugees" have something to do with it also?

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

The BBC's take on recent immigrants in Sweden:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5348622.stm.

[Charles Henrickson]

Conservative-trending election victory ping to the Swedish Ping List!

[Charles Henrickson]

Moderate party leader Fredrik Reinfeldt makes a thumbs-up sign on leaving a TV studio Sunday, late Sept. 17, 2006. A center-right coalition led by Reinfeldt defeated Prime Minister Goran Persson's Social Democrats in the general elections Sunday.

[Charles Henrickson]

Opposition leader Fredrik Reinfeldt declares victory for his centre-right alliance in Sweden's election in Stockholm September 17, 2006.

[Charles Henrickson]

Leader of the four-party centre-right coalition, Fredrik Reinfeldt celebrates victory in the Swedish elections, in Stockholm. Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson admitted defeat in legislative elections at the hands of a centre-right coalition headed by 41-year-old Fredrik Reinfeldt.

[Charles Henrickson]

The leader of the four-party centre-right coalition, Fredrik Reinfeldt, talks with his wife Filippa as they wait to vote in their hometown of Taby, north of Stockholm.

[Charles Henrickson]

Let's celebrate!

Supporters of Sweden's centre-right alliance celebrate their victory in general elections in Stockholm September 17, 2006. A centre-right alliance led by Moderate Party leader Fredrik Reinfeldt won power in Sweden's parliamentary election, ending 12 years of Social Democrat rule by vowing to lower taxes and refresh the welfare state.

[Charles Henrickson]

Moderate Party leader Fredrik Reinfeldt (R) addresses supporters as leaders of Sweden's centre-right alliance celebrate their victory in general elections in Stockholm September 17, 2006. From left to right are Folkparty leader Lars Leijonborg, Center Party leader Maud Olofsson and Christian Democrat leader Goran Hagglund.

[Sam Clements]

My grandmother came from Sweden so that makes me at least partially Swedish. I visited Sweden while I was in college during 1972. The two memories which stood out were the multitudes of drunks and the virulent anti-Americanism of almost everyone. I always figured that the ambitious, freedom loving folks moved to America in the late 1800's and early 1900's leaving the socialist folks behind. If there is a political shift going on I doubt it will be much, but it is a hopeful sign nevertheless.

More important than economics and politics, what is the current state of Christianity in Sweden? Signs to look for are abortion, drug use, alcoholism, single parenthood, divorce, and a single mindedness about gay rights. When Christ comes back then all of these problems will start to improve.

[Charles Henrickson]

Swedish moderate party leader Fredrik Reinfeldt arrives at the party's post-election vigil in Stockholm Sunday Sept. 17, 2006.

[John Lenin]

Two Swedish economists recently published a study that asks how European countries would fare if suddenly admitted into the American union. The results? If the UK, France, or Italy became U.S. states, they would rank as the fifth poorest of the fifty, ahead only of Arkansas, Montana, West Virginia, and Mississippi. The richest EU country—Ireland—would be the 13th poorest. Sweden would be the 6th poorest. In fact, the study found that 40% of all Swedish households would classify as low-income in the U.S.

If Sweden was a U.S. state, how rich would it be?

[Charles Henrickson]

what is the current state of Christianity in Sweden?

Not good. Sweden has become very secularized. This is not the same Sweden my grandparents grew up in. The Church of Sweden is ostensibly Lutheran, but in reality it is extremely liberal, to the point of apostasy. There is a small but faithful remnant, however. I know a number of faithful fellow pastors involved in what they call the "Mission Province" within the Church of Sweden.

[Charles Henrickson]

Pictures ping.

[GoLightly]

Let's celebrate!

Congrats!!

[Moonman62]

Good summary.

[AwesomePossum]

Yet another anti-Iraq-War government falls. Sweden was against the Iraq War back in 2003, now that government has been kicked to the curb. Likewise, the anti-Iraq-War government in Germany just lost the last election. Chirac is likewise losing in France, and Martin just lost to Harper in Canada. In contrast, pro-War Howard in Australia just won re-election, as did PM Blair in the UK, Koizumi's party in Japan, and President Bush in the U.S. Yet the news media will say that being for the war is unpopular...while ignoring that being against the war is a pretty good way to lose an election worldwide.

Great take, very good indeed.......................citizens all over the world are wondering if their own government is going to do something about the religious terrorists, or, just sit around complaining about President Bush................excellent take.............

Oh, yeah, almost forgot.......Death to the Main Stream Media!

:}

[Tzimisce]

Right of center? In Sweden?

Wouldn't that make him a hard core communist?

[Robert A. Cook, PE]

And we don't hear about any of those anti-war defeats from the MSM do we?

[WesternCulture]

Two Swedish economists recently published a study that asks how European countries would fare if suddenly admitted into the American union. The results? If the UK, France, or Italy became U.S. states, they would rank as the fifth poorest of the fifty, ahead only of Arkansas, Montana, West Virginia, and Mississippi. The richest EU country—Ireland—would be the 13th poorest. Sweden would be the 6th poorest. In fact, the study found that 40% of all Swedish households would classify as low-income in the U.S.

So, how would you explain this:

Rank Country GDP
per capita
1 Luxembourg 80,288
2 Norway 64,193
3 Iceland 52,764
4 Switzerland 50,532
5 Ireland 48,604
6 Denmark 47,984
7 Qatar 43,110
8 United States 42,000
9 Sweden 39,694
10 Netherlands 38,618
11 Finland 37,504
12 Austria 37,117
13 United Kingdom 37,023
14 Japan 35,757
15 Belgium 35,712
16 Canada 35,133
17 Australia 34,740
18 France 33,918
19 Germany 33,854
20 Italy 30,200
21 United Arab Emirates 27,700
22 Spain 27,226
23 Singapore 26,836
24 New Zealand 26,464
25 Kuwait 26,020
26 Brunei 25,754
27 Hong Kong, People's Republic of China 25,493
28 Greece 20,327
29 Cyprus 20,214
30 Israel 19,248
31 Bahrain 18,403
32 The Bahamas 18,062
33 Portugal 17,456
34 Netherlands Antilles, Netherlands 17,270
35 Slovenia 16,986
36 South Korea 16,308
37 Republic of China (Taiwan) 15,203
38 Malta 13,803
39 Saudi Arabia 13,410
40 Oman 12,664
41 Trinidad and Tobago 12,625
42 Czech Republic 12,152
43 Barbados 11,088
44 Saint Kitts and Nevis 10,895
45 Hungary 10,814
46 Antigua and Barbuda 10,727
47 Estonia 9,727
48 Slovakia 8,775
49 Croatia 8,675
50 Seychelles 8,556
51 Poland 7,946
52 Lithuania 7,446
53 Mexico 7,298
54 Chile 7,124
55 Latvia 6,862
56 Libya 6,696
57 Botswana 6,439
58 Gabon 6,397
59 Equatorial Guinea 6,205
60 Lebanon 6,034
61 Russia 5,349
62 Uruguay 5,274
63 South Africa 5,106
64 Turkey 5,062
65 Malaysia 5,042
66 Mauritius 5,029
67 Venezuela 5,026
68 Saint Lucia 4,963
69 Argentina 4,799
70 Panama 4,794
71 Grenada 4,670
72 Costa Rica 4,620
73 Romania 4,539
74 Brazil 4,320
75 Belize 4,146
76 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 3,950
77 Dominica 3,947
78 Kazakhstan 3,717
79 Jamaica 3,657
80 Bulgaria 3,459
81 Dominican Republic 3,411
82 Turkmenistan 3,406
83 Fiji 3,349
84 Algeria 3,086
85 Belarus 3,031
86 Namibia 3,022
87 Serbia 2,880
88 Peru 2,841
89 Tunisia 2,829
90 Republic of Macedonia 2,810
91 Iran 2,767
92 Ecuador 2,761
93 Albania 2,673
94 Thailand 2,659
95 Colombia 2,656
96 Suriname 2,637
97 El Salvador 2,468
98 Bosnia and Herzegovina 2,384
99 Maldives 2,350
100 Swaziland 2,336
101 Jordan 2,317
102 Angola 2,129
103 Tonga 2,106
104 Cape Verde 2,066
105 Guatemala 1,995
106 Samoa 1,832
107 Republic of the Congo 1,785
108 Ukraine 1,766
109 Morocco 1,713
110 People's Republic of China 1,709
111 Iraq 1,700 [1]
112 Vanuatu 1,530
113 Azerbaijan 1,493
114 Georgia 1,480
115 Syrian Arab Republic 1,464
116 Paraguay 1,288
117 Indonesia 1,283
118 Egypt 1,265
119 Sri Lanka 1,200
120 Philippines 1,168
121 Honduras 1,148
122 Armenia 1,140
123 Bhutan 1,126
124 Guyana 1,039
125 Bolivia 993
126 Djibouti 973
127 Cameroon 952
128 Côte d'Ivoire 900
129 Moldova 861
130 Nicaragua 850
131 Sudan 820
132 Senegal 738
133 Mongolia 736
134 Pakistan 728
135 India 705
136 Nigeria 678
137 Kiribati 672
138 Mauritania 663
139 Papua New Guinea 662
140 Chad 654
141 Zambia 627
142 Lesotho 621
143 Vietnam 618
144 Comoros 615
145 Solomon Islands 611
146 Benin 592
147 Yemen 586
148 Kenya 560
149 Ghana 512
150 Laos 485
151 Haiti 478
152 Kyrgyz Republic 473
153 Uzbekistan 444
154 Mali 432
155 Burkina Faso 430
156 Cambodia 430
157 São Tomé and Príncipe 430
158 Bangladesh 400
159 Zimbabwe 383
160 Togo 377
161 Tajikistan 364
162 Guinea 355
163 Timor-Leste 352
164 Tanzania 336
165 Central African Republic 335
166 Mozambique 331
167 Nepal 322
168 The Gambia 306
169 Uganda 303
170 Afghanistan 300
171 Madagascar 282
172 Niger 274
173 Rwanda 242
174 Sierra Leone 223
175 Myanmar 219
176 Eritrea 209
177 Guinea-Bissau 190
178 Liberia 161
179 Malawi 161
180 Ethiopia 153
181 Democratic Republic of the Congo 119 [2]
182 Burundi 107

[freppa]

It's a liberal [in the traditional meaning of the word] alliance, his role-model is Tony Blair and he called the war in Iraq a failure.

[kanawa]

Thanks for the ping!

[NZerFromHK]

The key is to compare PPP adjusted figures. You are quoting nominal GDP per capita which is not as good estimate.

[WesternCulture]

"The key is to compare PPP adjusted figures. You are quoting nominal GDP per capita which is not as good estimate."

Why is it not?

GDP by PPP tend (and is INtended?) to make the performance of economies like the swedish one look poor compared to its US counterpart by disregarding the fact that consumer goods are heavily taxed in Sweden while corporate taxes in fact are considerably lower than in the US AND the fact that swedes get a lot of things (not at least university education) for free while many married couples in the US have to choose between buying a decent SUV and sending their two children to university.

Please forgive me if I sound anti-american.

I'm 100% a friend of the US, If not more.

[NZerFromHK]

Why? We are here to compare how well-off individuals are in each country. Obviously many see that if you want to analyse international trade performances nominal GDP figures would be useful, but it is not a relevant factor for what we want to do here.

If I earn US$35,000 a year and 1L milk costs US$25.00 etc it would not be logical to say I'm more well off than earning at US$31,000 but 1L of milk costs US$1.20. Now last I check the consumer items are of comparable quality between the US and Sweden, and we are not including really fancy things like extra virgin olive oil or Angus beef as PPP calculations.

[WesternCulture]

I still don't get your point.

An average family, whether it's an american or swedish one consumes tons of education, healthcare, social "arrangements" such as benefits and other types of security.

Whatever you think of it, Sweden of today has a system which taxes consumption and personal income heavily in order to pay for these services, therefore the GDP PPP measurement is bound to make Sweden look poor in comparision to the US.

On the other hand if you look at the actual performance of each economy respectively, you'll find out Sweden and and the US are more or less as prosperous.

In fact, reality looks like this; In the US people work more hours than swedes do, still they aren't richer.

An average swede has to work less hours in order to obtain the same standard of living than an american (despite higher taxes etc.)

Why?

Our basic industrial apparatus is more productive.

[NZerFromHK]

This is irrelevant. I don't see why you take government goodies come in except to confuse the whole issue. You get paid, you paid taxes, and it comes back to you as "free" education, etc. It is still part of the GDP per capita figures.

You need some more convincing arguments.

[WesternCulture]

"This is irrelevant. I don't see why you take government goodies come in except to confuse the whole issue. You get paid, you paid taxes, and it comes back to you as "free" education, etc. It is still part of the GDP per capita figures.

You need some more convincing arguments."


- GDP by PPP is a re-calculation of nominal GDP.
GDP by PPP is a measure supposed to take consideration to "what money actually can buy" in any given country. If you measure the GDP by PPP of Sweden and US, you'll find out the US is much richer this way of comparing.

No doubt things like gas and many consumer goods are cheaper in the US than in Sweden. Therefore, a dollar will, in many cases buy you more in the US than in Sweden. However, the main reason things are more expensive in Sweden is that we tax personal consumption and personal income heavily (while corporate taxes in fact are lower than in the US). BUT, we also get a lot of things in return (free education including university education - in fact you even get paid for going to university - very inexpensive health care, nice highways free of charge and so on) and GDP by PPP does NOT recognize this fact!

If a family buys a new TV in Sweden, they indirectly pay for sending their children to university so to say.

An average family in Sweden pays more taxes than an average american family, but on the other hand; a swedish family can spend a larger percentage of their post tax income on things like food, home electronics, furniture, travelling etc, etc because they get more things for "free" than their american counterpart from their government.

Furthermore, I suspect that another problem with GDP by PPP in this case is that statisticians performing GDP by PPP figures look at the prices of consumer goods at the same established business chains in Sweden as they've always done.
In that case, the statistic material is highly inadequate as consumption patterns have changed a lot during the last 10-15 years in Sweden. Established chains are facing fierce competition from low-price/high quality companies from Germany and other EU countries and several swedish low price/high quality chains have been tremendously successful as well. This development has meant a lot to swedish consumers and if you compare the prices of these stores, you'll find that they're not much higher than in the US.

Either way you look at it, it ought to be kept in mind that both Sweden and the US are rich because of sound CAPITALISM. Sweden is more socialist than the US, but I think it's erroneous to call Sweden a socialist country. The trade unions tried to make Sweden a socialist country in the 1970's, but they failed. Today we have a conservative PM, we are richer than ever, most of us live in really nice condos or houses and drive attractive cars (the most common car in Sweden is the Volvo V70 http://www.volvocars.us/models/v70/ ). I enjoy living in Sweden, but I guess I would enjoy living in the US as well (the only state I've been to is Florida by the way - loved it!).

From what I've found out, the standard of living is about the same in the US and Sweden, so I guess nominal GDP figures are closer to the truth in this particular case because of the aspects mentioned above.

[ovrtaxt]

Congratulations!!