Dear all,
Swedes voted No to the euro yesterday, and by a remarkable margin. Swedish TV’s exit poll pointed to a comfortable victory for the anti-EMU side, 51.8% to 46.2%. But, for as yet unexplored reasons, this severely underestimated the No vote. The final result was:
Yes 41.8%, No 56.1%, blank 2.1%.
In only two of Sweden’s 21 counties, Stockholm and Scania, did a plurality vote Yes, and only Stockholm had a majority. In West Götaland, Gothenburg’s region, the ayes got a surprisingly feeble 40.4%. In Umeå’s county, Västerbotten, there was an overwhelming 72.2% No vote. But even that level of euro-scepticism was surpassed by Jämtland, where a staggering 77.2% voted against the euro. Turnout overall was an impressive 81.2% (compared to 77.9% in last year’s municipal elections, the eligibility rules for which were used in the referendum). In a televised “conversation” about democracy last Friday, which replaced the planned eve-of-referendum debate, all the party leaders had urged people to show their opposition to violence by voting.
Results can be found at the websites of the Elections Authority (www.val.se), Swedish TV (www.svt.se) and various newspapers.
When the Danish prime minister lost that country’s EMU referendum three years ago, he was pretty much crying afterwards. Last night Göran Persson, the Swedish PM, sounded almost relieved. You could speculate as to why that might be, but, in the light of last week’s tragedy, there is one straightforward explanation. After opinion polls had given the No side such a commanding lead for so long, a Yes result would unavoidably have been interpreted as an emotional reaction to the murder of Anna Lindh – which would, soon enough, have prompted No-campaigners to have questioned the legitimacy of the outcome. Fortunately, this decisive result has saved Sweden from that very awkward eventuality.
Best,
Nick Aylott.
