This article was first published in Stockholm News 2011-01-14
The Social democrats has been the biggest party in Sweden since the introduction of equal suffrage. Between 1932 and 2006 they were only in opposition for nine years. Now they are to decide who will be their new leader, a person who might very well become the next Prime Minister.
After the worst election result since the dawn of Swedish democracy (30.7%), it was probably just a matter of time before chairman Mona Sahlin would have to resign. She was questioned already when she was elected and even though she initially seemed to aim at staying as chairman – her resignation did not come as a surprise. To understand the background we have to go back in time.
 |
| Tage Erlander. Prime Minister 1946-1969. Photo: Wikimedia |
The Social democrats has dominated modern Swedish politics as few other parties in democratic countries – perhaps only the Liberal democrats in Japan and the Congress party in India can compete. When world politics changed and economy became globalised during the late 80s and 90s, it was hard for a party that had dominated national politics for so long to change and adapt to a new reality. The murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme – a legend for many Social democrats – in 1986, made the mental transformation even bigger. I will here shortly describe the last two changes of leadership in the Social democratic party. It goes without saying that it needs to be a simplified version – it would be possible to write a PhD thesis about it.
Sahlin’s first attempt – a Toblerone chocolate cake came between
When Palme’s successor Ingvar Carlsson chose to resign in 1996, there was one obvious successor – Mona Sahlin. Sahlin was the young and fresh candidate who understood the new time era and appealed to women and young people, but not so much to the traditional core of the Social democrats’ voters – industrial workers.
When it turned out that Sahlin had paid personal expenses with her state credit card – (called the ‘toblerone affair’ but it involved much more than the infamous chocolate cake) – Sahlin became impossible as chairman and took a – with her own words – timeout. The hunt for a new leader had to start again. Many wanted a woman on the position for the first time but in the end Finance Minister Göran Persson took over despite saying ‘no’ repeatedly when asked by media. When Sahlin became impossible to elect, there was no other obvious candidate.
Eleven years later, in 2007, it was again time to elect a new chairman. This time the obvious successor had been murdered three years earlier. Foreign Minister Anna Lindh was stabbed to death at NK department store in Stockholm just three days before the Swedish referendum about changing currency to the euro.
 |
| Anna Lindh never became party chairman and Prime Minister. Photo: Wikimedia |
Another popular female candidate Margot Wallström was EU-commissionaire in Brussels and did not want to come home to domestic politics. Still, the general consensus in the party was that it had to be a woman this time. So, Mona Sahlin became electable again.
