SWEDEN: Swedes take to the streets as campaigning hits peak on eve of general election
Record ID:
346032
SWEDEN: Swedes take to the streets as campaigning hits peak on eve of general election
- Title: SWEDEN: Swedes take to the streets as campaigning hits peak on eve of general election
- Date: 19th September 2010
- Summary: STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN (SEPTEMBER 18, 2010) (REUTERS) STAGE DURING RED-GREEN BLOCKS' ELECTION RALLY
- Embargoed: 4th October 2010 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Sweden
- Country: Sweden
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA7S6M7SEZRS0IHQGAWRSOHZPZ9
- Story Text: Politicians and activists were out in force on Saturday (September 18) for some last minute campaigning ahead of Sunday's general election in which, according to most opinion polls, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt looks set to win a new majority.
Two polls on the eve of the election showed the government winning a wafer-thin parliamentary majority in the vote, a third one showed although the four-party Alliance would win, the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats would hold the balance of power.
Voters face a choice on Sunday (September 19) between a centre-right offering a leaner welfare model and more cuts in income taxes and a centre-left that wants the rich to pay more to fund schools, hospitals and care for the elderly.
At a Green Party rally in central Stockholm, the Green Party spokespersons Peter Eriksson and Maria Wetterstrand were joined by their block partners -- the Social Democrat's Mona Sahlin and the Left Party's Lars Ohly, before all heading down to southern Sweden for some last minute campaigning.
Sahlin, whose Social Democrats is the main party in the centre-left opposition bloc and in power for much of the post World War Two era, said every second counted now to secure a Red-Green victory.
"We can have a Red-Green government on Sunday and we need to work together. Every second, minute and hour that is left until eight o'clock on Sunday -- or more rightly five past eight because the clocks may go a bit wrong -- work past eight o'clock so we don't miss a single opportunity to vote and to vote Red-Green," she told the crowd attending the rally.
Although Reinfeldt's alliance has been in the lead in most opinion polls in the last few weeks, the gap has narrowed in the last few days.
Sahlin, who would become Sweden's first woman prime minister if the opposition wins, said there were many reasons for this.
"The price of the tax cuts has become clear to a lot of people. One is ashamed of how the health insurance system has developed, one is ashamed for thinking about those extra few hundred crowns in the pocket but not about who has had to pay for it," she told reporters after the rally.
Two of the three polls showed the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats getting seats in parliament for the first time ever. Their main policy platform is to drastically cut immigration.
Reinfeldt has called on Swedes to vote tactically to keep out the far-right.
"I don't want them to have any power in Swedish society. I don't want them to be a parliamentary party when we present Sweden to other countries. We (Sweden) should be an example, which we won't be if we have a racist party in parliament," said Helge Johansson.
Cecilia and Stefan Fahlgren, who said they hoped for a majority for the Alliance, said the Sweden Democrats would not get the four percent needed to get into parliament.
"That would be a shame -- that would really be a shame because they don't have a full programme to offer, they just have this question about the immigrants that they shout out loud about and I don't think they have thought thoroughly about the politics," said Cecilia.
"No solutions whatsoever, no solutions, so hopefully they won't get in and (we hope for) a new majority," Stefan added.
The SVD/Sifo poll gave the Moderates, Liberal, Centre and Christian Democrats 49.9 percent of the vote against 45.3 for the opposition coalition. In that poll the Sweden Democrats were just short of the four percent needed to get into parliament.
The DN/Synovate survey gave the government parties 49.2 percent and the opposition of the Social Democrats, Greens and Left party 42.8 percent. DN/Synovate put support for the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats at 5.9 percent.
That would give the Sweden Democrats 21 seats in the country's 349-seat assembly.
A third poll, by United Minds, put the Alliance at 46.9 percent, the opposition at 43.9 percent and the Sweden Democrats at 7.2 percent, leaving them holding the balance of power. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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