Sad Wings of Destiny

Nice album cover right? I'm just using the picture as a symbol, showing the current events in Swedish politics. Yes, Håkan Juholt has stepped down as the social democratic party leader. He hold the position for 10 months, that is probably the shortest time any swedish party leader has sat on the throne. The only ones that comes close is Maria Leissner from the Liberal Party and Karin Söder from the Centre Party, but they at least sat for 2 years and left due to personal problems (Leissner's husband died in a car accident she survived in while Söder left due to illness). This also illustrates the fall that the Swedish social democrats is in, traditionally the party leader sat a minimum of 10 years (you can read about it in an old post), but the latest ones have only sat for 4 years and now 10 months. There is a new dawn they are witnessing.

Of course, the party members are now looking for a scape goat. The blames falls often at media due to almost constant barrage of news centering around Juholt during the years. It began sadly the same day as his installation when the news broke that the pension reform he said he coordinated together with the unions was nonexistent, they didn't know what he talked about. Then it followed with his spouses criminal past, his constant flip-flopping on the Libyan issue and probably peaked with the deduction scandal in October last year. Didn't help when he declined to participate in the party leader duel due to him standing beside the Sweden democrats and talking about a written paper which both the green and left party signed. None of the others knew what he talked about, all they had was a mutual agreement that the greens broke, but no paper. And then the final straw was probably how this week began with the obvious blunder. Is media to blame? Only in the sense that they reported it, but would it not be against the free press to stop them reporting on constant failures of the party leader of the current biggest party in the parliament? This has the stuff to turn into Stab-in-the-back legend that will make the climate inside the party much more uglier when the left and the right sides while start the attack new for the price of power. We have already seen the current left-wingers purge certain right-wingers and will probably be more bloodshed to come.

Still, the fault isn't in media, it lies in the fact that they decided upon a party leader that didn't keep a straight course for a party desperately in need of one. It doesn't help that many of them appears as sect members that see no fault in anyone from S, especially the left supporters that doesn't hesitate to use names as betrayers, fifth columns and so on. They will probably not stand silent, although they usually forget how the media has hunted down not one, not two but three ministers from the right-wing government. If you would you could probably put the last liberal party leader as one as well. Do we on the right complain? Some, but I think most agree that that was necessary due to the problems they brought with them. And still the left complain that "all media is owned by the right", "they are hunting for us" and so on. A bit childish, don't you think? A bit sad actually.