Atlantic Sentinel

Tag: Northern Europe

  • Political Fragmentation Isn’t the Problem

    Swedish parliament Stockholm
    Parliament House in Stockholm, Sweden (iStock/Roland Lundgren)

    Another political crisis in Europe, another chance to beat on multiparty democracy.

    It’s not like the two-party systems of America and Britain are crisis-free, yet journalists in those countries have a tendency to find complex causes for their own political problems while reducing continental Europe’s to “fragmentation”.

    Today’s example: Bloomberg, which argues the “turmoil” in Sweden “reflects a shifting political landscape” and this is a “warning to other countries with key elections looming — like Germany and France — where fractured politics have also upended old alliances.” (more…)

  • Swedish Housing Crisis Has Similarities with Netherlands

    Stockholm Sweden
    Early morning in Stockholm, Sweden (iStock/Marcus Lindstrom)

    Stefan Löfven may be Europe’s first prime minister brought down by a housing crisis, but he is unlikely to be the last.

    Löfven, a social democrat, lost the support of the far left over a proposal to allow landlords to freely set rents for newly-built apartments.

    Rents in Sweden are usually negotiated between landlords and tenants’ associations.

    Other countries struggle to find the right balance between public and private in housing too. Berlin instituted a citywide rent freeze last year, but it was struck down as unconstitutional by Germany’s highest court. Spain’s central government is challenging a Catalan rent cap. Authorities in Barcelona want to extend a moratorium on evictions that has been in place since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    But perhaps the best comparison is with the Netherlands, which organizes public housing in much the same way as Sweden. (more…)

  • Swedish Center-Right Adapts to Rise of Far Right

    Ulf Kristersson Gabrielius Landsbergis
    Swedish Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson listens to Gabrielius Landsbergis of the Lithuanian Homeland Union during a meeting of European conservative party leaders in Brussels, June 20 (EPP)

    Sweden’s center-right Moderates have broken ranks with other mainstream parties by holding talks with the far-right Sweden Democrats.

    The Moderates, who most recently governed Sweden from 2006 to 2014, had until now backed a cordon sanitaire around the Sweden Democrats, who are still seen as beyond by pale by centrists and leftists.

    But years of political isolation haven’t made the Sweden Democrats less popular. On the contrary. They have risen from 13 percent support in last year’s election to 25 percent in opinion polls, tying with the ruling Social Democrats and ahead of the Moderates, who are at 17-19 percent. (more…)

  • What Can Danes Teach Europe’s Social Democrats?

    Mette Frederiksen
    Danish Social Democratic Party leader Mette Frederiksen gives a speech in Allinge-Sandvig on the island of Bornholm, June 16, 2017 (News Øresund/Sofie Paisley)

    The victory of Denmark’s Social Democrats in the election on Wednesday would some seem to vindicate leader Mette Frederiksen’s lurch to the right. She hardened her party’s policy on immigration and supported such far-right proposals as a ban on prayer rooms in schools and universities.

    A closer look at the campaign she ran, as well as the election result, reveals a more nuanced picture. (more…)

  • Lithuania’s Presidential Election Is Boring — And That’s Fine

    Former finance minister Ingrida Šimonytė and economist Gitanas Nausėda have advanced to the second round of Lithuania’s presidential election. Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis placed third and has announced he will step down in July.

    The remaining candidates are both center-right, so the outcome of the runoff on May 26 should not affect Lithuania’s politics in a major way. Even so, the result is largely a happy one. (more…)

  • Estonia’s President Sends Wrong Message Meeting Putin

    For the past decade, the Baltic states have maintained a strict policy toward Russia: no official state visits by presidents, prime ministers or other high-ranking officials.

    That changed last week, when Estonian president Kersti Kaljulaid visited a newly renovated embassy in Moscow and stopped by the Kremlin for a cup of tea with Vladimir Putin.

    In itself, the meeting does not carry much weight, as nothing crucial was said or done. But it sent the wrong message. (more…)

  • Why Sweden Still Doesn’t Have a Government

    Stefan Löfven
    Swedish prime minister Stefan Löfven leaves an EU summit in Tallinn, Estonia, September 29, 2017 (EU2017EE/Raul Mee)

    Two months after parliamentary elections, Sweden is still without a government. Neither the traditional left-wing bloc, led by outgoing prime minister Stefan Löfven’s Social Democrats, nor the center-right, led by Ulf Kristersson’s Moderate Party, has an outright majority, forcing the parties to explore other options.

    I asked our man in Sweden, Johan Wahlström, to enlighten us on the situation. (more…)

  • Ignoring Nativists Doesn’t Work in Sweden Either

    Stefan Löfven Lars Løkke Rasmussen
    Prime Ministers Stefan Löfven of Sweden and Lars Løkke Rasmussen of Denmark answer questions from reporters in Helsinki, Finland, November 1, 2017 (Finnish Government/Laura Kotila)

    The rise of the far-right Sweden Democrats proves that isolating nativists doesn’t work.

    Support for the Sweden Democrats has hovered north of 20 percent since 2015, up from the 13 percent they got in the election a year earlier. They could place second in the election this year, behind the ruling Social Democrats but ahead of the center-right Moderate Party.

    Sweden’s mainstream parties have deliberately ignored the far right and most of them share pro-immigration views, making the Sweden Democrats the only recourse for voters who feel their country — the most welcoming to refugees in Europe — has done its part.

    With 20 percent of the vote, the Sweden Democrats could block a traditional left- or right-wing government. They already forced Prime Minister Stefan Löfven into an awkward pact with the center-right in the outgoing parliament, reinforcing the impression that the entire political establishment has ganged up on the populists. (more…)

  • Social Democrats in Iberia and Scandinavia Try Opposite Strategies

    António Costa Pedro Sánchez
    Prime Minister António Costa of Portugal greets his Spanish counterpart, Pedro Sánchez, in Lisbon, July 2 (Governo da República Portuguesa/Clara Azevedo)

    What is the future of European social democracy? Your answer may depend on where you live.

    If you’re in the Mediterranean, it’s cooperation with the far left. Social democrats in Portugal and Spain have come to power under deals with far-left parties. In both cases, unwieldy coalitions were greeted with skepticism, but now Prime Ministers António Costa and Pedro Sánchez are riding high in the polls.

    In Greece, Alexis Tsipras’ Syriza party has even supplanted the center-left altogether.

    In Scandinavia, by contrast, social democrats are trying to win back working-class voters by taking a harder line on borders, crime and defense.

    Both strategies appear to be working. (more…)

  • Why Should Norwegians Emigrate to the United States?

    Norway fjord
    Houses along a fjord in Norway (Unsplash/Raimond Klavins)

    American president Donald Trump reportedly disparaged immigrants from Africa, El Salvador and Haiti, asking his advisors, “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?”

    Trump argued the United States should bring more people from countries like Norway, whose prime minister he had met a day earlier.

    Much of the outrage has focused on Trump’s racism. He would rather have more white than brown immigrants.

    But here’s another question: why should Norwegians emigrate to America? (more…)

  • Denmark’s Left Must Find Balance Between Nativists and Progressives

    Danish parliament Copenhagen
    Christiansborg Palace, seat of the Danish parliament, in Copenhagen (Shutterstock)

    Denmark’s Social Democrats are eying cooperation with the nationalist People’s Party which they have shunned for years.

    Under Mette Frederiksen, who took over the party leadership after its 2015 election defeat, the center-left has supported such far-right policies as a ban on prayer rooms in schools and universities.

    The two parties, who are both in opposition to a liberal minority government, have also made common cause against raising the pension age.

    Frederiksen argues she is defending the Danish welfare state from the challenges of globalization.

    Her strategy is not too dissimilar from her Swedish counterpart’s. Stefan Löfven, the ruling Social Democratic Party leader in Stockholm, has taken a hard line on border control, crime and defense in a bid to stem working-class defections to the far right. (more…)

  • Finland’s Brain Drain: When Talent Leaves a Small Country

    Helsinki Central Station Finland
    Central train station of Helsinki, Finland at night (Unsplash/Alexandr Bormotin)

    Young Finnish professionals are attracted to major European capitals. They move to Stockholm, Berlin and Amsterdam, as well as farther away. The sun shines in Dubai; the world’s top organizations and institutes are in New York and Washington. The occupations of these migrants are manifold: bankers, graphic designers, computer engineers, photographers and researchers, to name only a few.

    They leave Finland because of poor employment opportunities and future prospects. This has been happening for a long time. Finns were moving to North America 100 years ago and to Sweden after World War II — in both cases because growing economies needed factory workers.

    The difference with today’s migrants is they are better educated (PDF) and leaving a welfare state that ranks as one of the best places to live in the world according to most indices. The likelihood of them returning has nevertheless fallen sharply. Why? (more…)

  • Sweden’s Social Democrats Take Risk with Hardline Policies

    Swedish parliament Stockholm
    Parliament House in Stockholm, Sweden at night (iStock/Blue Jay Photo)

    Sweden’s Stefan Löfven is taking the fight to the far right. Politico reports that the prime minister and Social Democratic Party leader is implementing a hard line on border control, crime and defense.

    With his tough stance, Löfven hopes to avoid the fate of sister parties elsewhere in Europe who have failed to convince voters that they are still relevant now that the welfare states they helped build are well-established.

    Polls show the Swedish left down a few points. The nationalist Sweden Democrats have moved up.

    Löfven’s party would still get nearly 30 percent support on its own and 40 percent in combination with its left-wing allies; a far cry from the dismal performance of center-left parties in France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

    But like social democrats elsewhere, Sweden’s are losing their traditional, working-class supporters to the far right. (more…)

  • Baltic States Have Most to Fear from Trump Victory

    For Eastern Europe and the Baltic states in particular, a Donald Trump presidency could be disastrous. The Republican has created doubt about whether or not the United States would honor NATO’s collective defense clause, Article 5, under his leadership.

    Hillary Clinton, the likely winner on Tuesday, will have to ease Eastern European anxieties while at the same time supporting a genuine European defense policy that is based on a considerable hike in budgets. (more…)

  • A Tale of Two Submarines

    The news of a suspected foreign submarine in Swedish waters attracted massive media coverage last year. The Swedish Navy, a shadow of its former self after more than a decade of budget cuts, launched an intelligence-gathering operation to secure evidence of the intrusion. In November, the navy presented what it considered to be concrete proof of an intrusion by a foreign submarine. This included sonar tracks and a photograph, both of which had been subjected to detailed technical analysis and were made public.

    Last week, the Swedish Navy said that another suspected submarine sighting, in late October, had been dismissed after extensive investigation which found that the suspected vessel was in fact a “workboat.” This second observation was made a full week after the original intelligence-gathering operation concluded and was treated by Swedish defense as a separate event. (more…)