Sweden: now what?

The jubilation of the Swedish Left about election results turned out to be premature. When the dust settled and the votes were counted, the Left scored 44% and the Right coalition 39%. The balance of power (13%) is in the hands of a nationalist and immigration hard-line Party called the Sweden Democrats.

Swedish TV reports that one out of three votes for the Sweden Democrats came from the Moderates (the name of the largest Conservative Party). The Moderates espoused a John McCain-like devotion to increased immigration and their vote share went from 30% to 22%. Self-delusion does not work even in Sweden.

The New Feminist Initiative Party took votes from the Left but failed to score 4% of the vote and thus is not eligible for any representation. The Environmentalist wackoes (the Green Party) actually lost votes.

This makes for an interesting situation. The Left can forget about going back to the "good old days" of the Welfare State as the Rigt and the Sweden Democrats can defeat it in a no confidence vote. The right can form a ruling coalition only if it gives up the idea of increased immigration. If I were a Swed, I'd be satisfied with that.