Dear all on the Scandinavian Politics list,
It feels like Nordic politics has been going through a bit of a quiet spell recently. A couple of party leaders (the Finnish Social Democrats, the Norwegian Centre Party) have announced that they're stepping down. The "highly leveraged" Icelandic economy is either going through a slightly rough patch or is poised for total meltdown, depending on who you believe. Most of you will have read about the resignation of the Finnish foreign minister, after some rather inappropriate SMS correspondence.
In Sweden, the Greens' top people have signalled that they want to reconcile their party to EU membership, which could have interesting consequences for their relations with the Social Democrats. There are currently big healthcare strikes in Denmark and Sweden, and both countries have experienced public spats about academic freedom, which Jacob Christensen has written insightfully about (http://jacobchristensen.name/2008/04/15/an-academic-debate-and-other-catfights/).
But otherwise it's been fairly sedate - with, I would say, one interesting exception.
As usual, this exception can be found in Denmark. It concerns the recent behaviour of the Socialist People's Party and, in particular, its leader, Willy Søvndal. One interesting development was his openness to a deal with the right-wing government over holding new referendums on Denmark's longstanding opt-outs from the Treaty on European Union, including EMU. (The Lisbon treaty, meanwhile, was pushed through parliament yesterday, the government having been determined to avoid a referendum.)
More striking, though, was Søvndal's reaction to the wave of unrest that some Danish towns experienced in February, at the same time as the cartoons-of-the-prophet controversy briefly blew back into life. Among other things, he argued that while discrimination against immigrants was a problem, it was "not an open excuse to burn cars". Nor were immigrants the only ones to suffer immigration; so too did groups within the indigenous population, such as young women, sometimes at the hands of "young men with another ethnic background". He also laid into some of the more radical Islamic organisations. For "those with a Muslim background in Denmark", he declared, "the solution to their problems - which I recognise and understand - is not to be found through more religion" (Politiken Feb. 20th 2008).
Now, this position is entirely consistent with a secular left-wing analysis of anti-social behaviour and, especially, religion's role in public life. But it is nevertheless a sharp break with the Scandinavian left's usual position on the plight of many immigrants in the region, which is - putting it very simply - that the host society is to blame for marginalising them. Reactions have ranged from furious attacks on Søvndal from Social Liberals, and from some in his own party, to gleeful congratulation from the governing parties. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Socialist People's Party's opinion-polls figures have gone through the roof.
Meanwhile, the torture for the Social Democrats continues in ever more paradoxical forms. In such good times, economic issues, especially tax, are tricky enough for the party. But on social and ethical issues like immigration and freedom of speech, the Social Democrats are simultaneously being pulled leftwards by the Social Liberals, the party nominally to their right, and powerfully rightwards by the Socialist People's Party, the party nominally to their left and which now stands pretty much level with them in the polls.
The contrast with the immigration debate in Sweden just could not be greater.
Best,
Nick Aylott.
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Dr Nicholas Aylott, senior lecturer (docent) in political science
School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University College, Stockholm
SE-141 89 Huddinge, Sweden
www.sh.se/samhallsvetenskaper
