Text 31942, 66 rader
Skriven 2009-05-01 15:38:36 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
  Kommentar till text 31930 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
Ärende: "I read the news today oh boy..."
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Michiel van der Vlist wrote to Robert Bashe on Friday May 01 2009 at 10:02:

RB>> That will be the second hurdle. The first is whether a new Swedish
RB>> government will be formed with any participation of the Pirate Party.
RB>> I have my doubts:

MV> This wasn't  about forming a new Swedish government, this was anout
MV> the election for the European parliament.

I don't read Swedish and couldn't get Google to give me a translation, so I
assumed this was the Swedish general election I had heard about earlier. The EU
election in Germany will be in the early summer and I didn't realize it had
already taken place in Sweden (but see the end of this message).

RB>> in Germany, the "Leftist Party" polls more than the Pirate Party in
RB>> Sweden and still is ostracized by the mainline parties.

MV> Again: a situation not unfamiliar to us Dutch. Small parties,
MV> especially one issue parties have little or no chance to participate
MV> in government.

In this case, I wasn't referring to size, but to the politics - parties on the
extreme left and right have no real chance in Germany, as they are ostracized
as I mentioned (although sometimes parts of their platforms are adopted/stolen
by the mainstream parties), and I wouldn't be surprised if the - to put it
mildly - "fairly radical" politics of the Pirate Party would put it in the same
kind of position in Sweden.

MV> Absolute majorities of one party are unheard of.

Same here.

MV> The usual situation is that it takes at least three parties for a
MV> majority. Sometimes this is easy, sometimes it is hard.

Generally, Germany has had majorities of two parties, one of them being the
Free Democrats (FDP), the German "free market" segment.

But we've had "grand coalitions" of the two major parties twice (including
now), and both times political stasis and intercine warfare between the parties
throughout the legislative period.

Up to now, we've never had a three-party national government (although I
believe there have been such things in a couple of states), and viable options
are even now hard to imagine since the "major small parties" - Greens and FDP -
have totally different politics and are nearly continuously at odds with each
other.

Heaven only knows what will happen this Fall in the national election - I
wouldn't care to guess at this point, except that the election participation
will be the lowest ever in a national election. People are really fed up with
politics and politicians here, and will probably stay home in droves. Even I
have considered that, but will probably vote (but for whom??).

MV> But that is not the issue at hand. The june 7 election for the Euro
MV> parliament is.

So clear me up - what were the results Bjorn cited then? As I say, all I
understood was the diagram and the numbers. If it wasn't a general election and
also not the EU election, what was it? Wait - or were those just opinion poll
results? In that case, nothing has been decided yet.

Cheers, Bob

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