European elections
Jun. 2nd, 2009 10:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livIt's very interesting being a foreigner and watching the electoral campaigns. The thing is, I don't have any preconceived notions about what the various parties stand for, so I get the emotional impact of the advertising more or less undiluted. Pretty much every party has a poster campaign consisting of large images of their candidates with some kind of slogan, but they convey very different impressions.
On this very unsophisticated emotional level, the Centre party seem most appealing to me. They have by far the most diverse slate, in terms of age, ethnic background and other visible markers. Their slogans are enthusiastically pro-EU, for reasons that seem to boil down to "together we're stronger". The green party have very witty posters (and break the general rule of having portraits of their candidates dominating their ads), but I am automatically biased against single issue parties like that. The main opposition party, the left wing Social Democrats, are pretty much treating the European elections as a chance to campaign for their usual domestic issues and not really saying anything about European politics specifically.
There are a couple of anti-EU parties which make me roll my eyes, I mean, really, what's the point of standing for European elections on a platform of "we hate the EU"? And they tend to be at the extreme ends of the political spectrum anyway, the "leftist" party who would be communists except that the communist party got banned some years ago, the "workers'" party which is some splinter group from that, the "feminist" party which is a national joke. On the right, the weird nationalist and "Christian" parties who are knee-jerk against foreigners. And a single issue anti-Europe party, which is possibly the stupidest of the lot.
The "liberal" or centre right party are also pro-EU, but for the wrong reasons. They want an international police force, tougher anti-immigrant policies, free trade within the Union but protectionism outside it, and as far as I can tell from my superficial impression they seem to be pushing for some form of federalism. The right wing incumbent party, the "Moderates" (known colloquially as "the Borg") seem to be taking a pragmatic attitude to EU politics, implying that a strong national government can push the EU towards working for Sweden's benefit, but will be vigilant against any erosion of sovereignty.
The thing is that we've been hearing reports that some of the Moderates' posters are getting defaced by people scrawling "JEW" across them. In Sweden the political left tends to be very anti-Israel, whereas the Moderates have a vocally pro-Israel wing and even their mainstream party line is at least vaguely sympathetic to the Israeli state. None of their candidates actually are Jewish, but apparently antisemitic slurs are a way of expressing frustration at the unpopular current government. It's happening in the parts of town with high immigrant populations, but I don't infer from this that (presumed Muslim) immigrants are responsible; areas with lots of immigrants tend to contain lots of poor and disaffected ethnic Swedes as well.
It's of course an unfortunate historical accident that the Swedish word for "Jew" happens to be identical to the German word. And I personally think it's most likely that these "attacks" are being perpetrated by kids who feel angry and want to get a reaction, rather than an organized anti-Jewish campaign. But there are an awful lot of people in the Jewish community who are very triggered by seeing JUDE ✡ all over the place.
Actually, I found the Moderates' posters disturbing already, even without the graffiti. They're over-photoshopped, in some attempt to make the candidates look flawless. But the effect is to create a wall of very blonde faces, with perfect smiles and unblemished skin, and a slightly robotic air. They're very blonde because, well, it's Sweden, the majority of people and the very great majority of the kind of people who are in a position to become major politicians are blonde. Just, on the irrational level where I'm receiving political messages this election, it's creepy.
On this very unsophisticated emotional level, the Centre party seem most appealing to me. They have by far the most diverse slate, in terms of age, ethnic background and other visible markers. Their slogans are enthusiastically pro-EU, for reasons that seem to boil down to "together we're stronger". The green party have very witty posters (and break the general rule of having portraits of their candidates dominating their ads), but I am automatically biased against single issue parties like that. The main opposition party, the left wing Social Democrats, are pretty much treating the European elections as a chance to campaign for their usual domestic issues and not really saying anything about European politics specifically.
There are a couple of anti-EU parties which make me roll my eyes, I mean, really, what's the point of standing for European elections on a platform of "we hate the EU"? And they tend to be at the extreme ends of the political spectrum anyway, the "leftist" party who would be communists except that the communist party got banned some years ago, the "workers'" party which is some splinter group from that, the "feminist" party which is a national joke. On the right, the weird nationalist and "Christian" parties who are knee-jerk against foreigners. And a single issue anti-Europe party, which is possibly the stupidest of the lot.
The "liberal" or centre right party are also pro-EU, but for the wrong reasons. They want an international police force, tougher anti-immigrant policies, free trade within the Union but protectionism outside it, and as far as I can tell from my superficial impression they seem to be pushing for some form of federalism. The right wing incumbent party, the "Moderates" (known colloquially as "the Borg") seem to be taking a pragmatic attitude to EU politics, implying that a strong national government can push the EU towards working for Sweden's benefit, but will be vigilant against any erosion of sovereignty.
The thing is that we've been hearing reports that some of the Moderates' posters are getting defaced by people scrawling "JEW" across them. In Sweden the political left tends to be very anti-Israel, whereas the Moderates have a vocally pro-Israel wing and even their mainstream party line is at least vaguely sympathetic to the Israeli state. None of their candidates actually are Jewish, but apparently antisemitic slurs are a way of expressing frustration at the unpopular current government. It's happening in the parts of town with high immigrant populations, but I don't infer from this that (presumed Muslim) immigrants are responsible; areas with lots of immigrants tend to contain lots of poor and disaffected ethnic Swedes as well.
It's of course an unfortunate historical accident that the Swedish word for "Jew" happens to be identical to the German word. And I personally think it's most likely that these "attacks" are being perpetrated by kids who feel angry and want to get a reaction, rather than an organized anti-Jewish campaign. But there are an awful lot of people in the Jewish community who are very triggered by seeing JUDE ✡ all over the place.
Actually, I found the Moderates' posters disturbing already, even without the graffiti. They're over-photoshopped, in some attempt to make the candidates look flawless. But the effect is to create a wall of very blonde faces, with perfect smiles and unblemished skin, and a slightly robotic air. They're very blonde because, well, it's Sweden, the majority of people and the very great majority of the kind of people who are in a position to become major politicians are blonde. Just, on the irrational level where I'm receiving political messages this election, it's creepy.
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Date: 2009-06-03 12:53 am (UTC)