The Swedish Social Democrats' search for a new leader took a decisive and dramatic turn yesterday.

On behalf of Nicholas Aylott:

 

The Swedish Social Democrats' search for a new leader took a decisive and dramatic turn yesterday. The party's selection committee nominated Håkan Juholt as its preferred candidate. He and the nominee to the position of secretary-general, Carin Jämtin, will almost certainly be confirmed by a special party congress in a couple of weeks.

Juholt is the party's defence spokesman and chair of its Kalmar region, in the south-east, where it is relatively strong. Still, his nomination is an absolute sensation. He has no ministerial experience. Until the last couple of days, he had almost never been mentioned in the media as a serious candidate. What seems to have happened, according to reports, is that the coalition of left-leaning party regions fell in behind him at the last minute, and the looser coalition of right-leaning regions broke up. Enough of the latter group found him acceptable to leave the most right-wing regions too isolated to resist the selection committee's proposal.

Juholt is by no means a mad choice. He has both a presence in the Social Democratic parliamentary group and a strong base in its organisation. He is a talented debator. He has an agreeable, down-to-earth personality and a tremendous moustache. His only enemies within the party appear to be the previous leader and secretary-general, which hardly matters now.

His greatest advantage right now, though, is that no one really knows what he thinks on most central political issues. He has said enough to make the party's left back him, but little more than that, which, in the end, made him sufficiently broadly acceptable among the Social Democratic power-brokers.

It might not be an advantage for much longer, though. It may be thought fairly remarkable, and perhaps sub-optimal, that a party facing huge, historic challenges is about to elect a leader without having any real idea about how he plans to address those challenges. He will thus have no clear mandate to do anything at all.

Nicholas Aylott 2011-03-11