This is one of the first times I can remember seeing much on Sweden at all in the Boston Globe. Must be their generous social-welfare (as opposed to our self-serving warfare) system that keeps them out of the pages. They wouldn't want Americans getting any ideas about how their tax money should be spent.
"Swedish anti-immigrant group surges" by Associated Press | September 17, 2010
STOCKHOLM — Polls show an anti-immigration party is likely to enter Sweden’s Parliament for the first time in elections Sunday, despite attempts by vuvuzela-blowing protesters to disrupt the nationalist group’s campaign rallies.
Based on the impression I received from the soccer matches, the vuvuzelas did not help.
The Sweden Democrats are warning that lenient immigration policies are threatening the country’s welfare system, and a series of recent surveys shows the party has climbed above the 4 percent threshold necessary to enter to the legislature.
It is amazing how one leads to the other.
That could create disarray if neither the center-right government nor the left-wing opposition wins a majority in the 349-seat assembly, because neither side wants to rely on the support of the Sweden Democrats.
In the final days of campaigning, both blocs have warned voters against bringing the party into Parliament, saying it represents xenophobic views that don’t belong in a country seen as tolerant and welcoming to refugees.
Jimmie Akesson, the leader of the Sweden Democrats, advocates sharp cuts in immigration and has called Islam the greatest foreign threat to Swedish society since World War II....
:-(
The biggest waves of immigration have come from Finland, Iraq, the former Yugoslavia, and Poland.
Then why is he singling out Muslims?
Hundreds of protesters tried to drown out Akesson’s speech in Stockholm yesterday by chanting and making noise with vuvuzelas — plastic horns of the kind used by spectators at the World Cup in South Africa.
Several other rallies have been canceled or interrupted because police feared violence by demonstrators.
About 12,000 immigrants countrywide walked out of their jobs for five minutes yesterday as part of a Facebook protest against the Sweden Democrats, organizer Damon Rasti said.That is such a nothing protest. I'm sorry, but it is.
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"Swedish government loses majority rule; Far-right party surges, causes political disorder" by Karl Ritter, Associated Press | September 20, 2010
STOCKHOLM — A far-right party entered the Swedish Parliament for the first time in elections yesterday, spoiling the center-right government’s victory and majority and plunging the country into political disarray, preliminary results showed....
The result suggested a hung Parliament, because both blocs have ruled out governing with the Sweden Democrats, who want sharp cuts in immigration and have called Islam Sweden’s biggest foreign threat since World War II.
If Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt fails to solve the impasse he will be left with a fragile minority government that could be forced to resign if it fails to push crucial legislation through Parliament....
Large waves of immigration from the Balkans, Iraq, and Iran have changed the demography of the once-homogenous Scandinavian country, and 1 in 7 residents are now foreign-born.
Only apartheid Israel is allowed to remain that way.
The Sweden Democrats say immigration has become an economic burden that drains the welfare system.
Like them or not that part is true. We are finding that out here in AmeriKa.
But prevote surveys suggested Swedish voters were more concerned about unemployment (at 8.5 percent in July), the economy, and the environment than they were about immigration.
Which MAKES YOU WONDER why the AGENDA-PUSHING MSM is FOCUSED ON IT -- or maybe not.
Siamak Shoukri, a 52-year-old electrical engineer who moved to Sweden from Iran, said he believes the financial crisis has helped foment hostility against immigrants...
And cui bono?
Who benefits when we are all at each others throats?
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"Swedish coalition shuns far-right group" by Associated Press | September 21, 2010
STOCKHOLM — Sweden’s prime minister sought help from the opposition Greens yesterday after an Islam-bashing far-right group spoiled his center-right government’s control of Parliament, yet Green politicians were wary of joining his bloc.
Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt’s coalition won Sunday’s election but lost its majority in the 349-seat legislature....
The Sweden Democrats, a small nationalist party, entered Parliament for the first time, winning 20 seats to hold the balance of power between the 172 seats captured by the four-party center-right bloc and the 154 seats won by the three-party leftist opposition, according to preliminary returns.
Related: Israel's Neo-Cons
How come the people never hold power in democracies?
Reinfeldt has primarily reached out to the Green Party because he has vowed not to govern with the Sweden Democrats, who demand sharp cuts in immigration and have called Islam Sweden’s greatest foreign threat since World War II.
Large waves of immigration from the Balkans, Iraq, and Iran have changed the demography of the once-homogenous Scandinavian country, and one in seven residents is now foreign-born.
The Sweden Democrats say immigration has become an economic burden that drains the welfare system, but polls before Sunday’s vote showed that Swedish voters were more concerned about unemployment and the environment than they were about immigration.
The far-right group’s election breakthrough has sullied Sweden’s self-image as a bastion of tolerance, inoculated against the backlash on immigration seen elsewhere in Europe.
Well, they have been disabused of that notion.
Thanks, agenda-pushing world media.
Analysts said talks across the political divide were necessary for Reinfeldt to continue ruling with a minority government.
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Yeah, not much more about Sweden. Nothing about their great, SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH SYSTEM!
Just the SAME AGENDA-PUSHING GARBAGE you usually get in an AmeriKan newspaper.
