Complicated times for the Social Democrats

It won't make any difference whether the left or the right wins the Swedish elections on 19 September - the Social Democrats will bomb either way, says political analyst Eva Franchell in the online magazine Analys Norden. They may even be in for their worst election result ever...

Four years later, the Social Democrats are being led by Mona Sahlin, who was meant to breathe new life into the party and present stiff competition to the governing parties. But nothing has gone the way the Social Democrats planned. Franchell says that the party failed to make the most of the opportunities it was presented with to unleash a storm of criticism on the governing liberals - the financial crisis, promised jobs not materialising and the failed climate talks in Copenhagen last December. Sahlin, in fact, has barely raised her voice. And this is the selfsame party that won the electorate over just a couple of decades ago. But times change - and so do people's needs.