Hej to all on the Scandinavian Politics list,
A week is a long time in politics, they say. It must have felt like that
for the new Swedish prime minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, who took office
only a week and a half ago. This morning, his cabinet sustained its second
resignation. Very briefly, this is what happened.
As soon as the new government was announced, Reinfeldt acknowledged that
two of its more suprising appointments - trade minister Maria Borelius and
exotically named culture minister Cecilia Stegö Chilò - had hired domestic
help in the 1990s on the black market, that is, without paying employer
charges. This, it seems, was just about forgiveable. What made life much
tougher for Stegö Chilò, though, was the revelation soon afterwards that
she hadn't paid her television licence fee since 1990. Nor, it turned out,
had a third cabinet member, migration minister Tobias Billström.
For both Borelius and Stegö Chilò, maybe the worst mistake was their
shifting explanations for their tax- and fee-dogding. Pressure built on
Borelius as the media revealed aspects of her business life that had never
quite become illegal, but which were somewhat opaque and generally just,
well, a bit dodgy. She resigned on Saturday. That, in turn, proved the
last straw for Stegö Chilò, although her position - a minister in charge
of public-service broadcasting who didn't pay her licence fee - looked
untenable from the start.
Of course, this is all disastrous for the new government. To cap it all,
Stegö Chilò's belated resignation has displaced this morning's other
event, a tax-cutting budget, as the main headline. Meanwhile, commentators
have been drawing inferences about the longer-term significance of this
debacle for Reinfeldt's Moderate Party (Borelius, Stegö Chilò and
Billström are all Moderates, and all belong to its more neo-liberal wing),
for women in politics, and for the risks of appointing to government
individuals who haven't been screened by long experience of party
politics. Maybe it's also that, just as a party can grow too accustomed to
sitting in government, a party can also grow too accustomed to being in
opposition.
Best,
Nick Aylott.
--
Dr Nicholas Aylott, senior lecturer (docent) in political science
School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University College
SE-141 89 Huddinge, Sweden
www.sh.se/statsvetenskap
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