Election watch: Guess how I’ll vote?

The last couple of days have, of course, been really busy. I am preparing the election issue of the newspaper I work at, and we must be done during the afternoon on Monday, and then the newspaper will be distributed to our readers Tuesday (will have a final result by then???). Our articles will be available earlier online.

I have also been doing quite some hours of local campaign work in the district where I live (Kungsholmen). The positive response I have got in this heavily Conservative district has surprised me. As everyone else I think this election will be veeeery close, and my guess is that the left block will win with 48,2 percent against 48,0. We are somewhat behind in the last polls, but don’t forget that we were underestimated in 2002, and that there is another election campaign going on outside the pond in Stockholm. That’s where we’re really strong.

To sum up these weeks of election blogging: I will vote for the Social Democrats because of the following reasons:

1. The Swedish model: I believe in the combination of market economy, strong and progressive trade unions, and a generous welfare state. That’s a model that creates loads of real competitive jobs right now, stellar economic growth (5.5 percent), which enables us to redistribute to those in need, which increases the equality in society.
2. “The green welfare state”: We have a kick-ass vision for the future, which says that we should break our dependency on oil and create a green and equal way of living with room for everyone.
3. Internationalism: We give one percent of our GDP in aid to the developing world and the Social Democratic party is built on the borderless principle of solidarity and human rights for all. The world is not in balance, and a Social Democratic government always works hard to put that right.

That’s the way I think, folks.

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The left block did really well in the last TV-debate Friday night. Göran Persson was solid as always, but the one who surprised me the most was the leader of the Left Party (Lars Ohly). He totally owned that debate. But you can be calm, I went to few meetings with the Left Party's youth section when I was young, which convinced me that I am a Social Democrat.

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The picture above was taken when Göran Persson came to the Party Headquarters after the debate Friday night. The Secretary General of the Norwegian Social Democratic Party, Martin Kolberg, is congratulating him. Is Forza Italia in Sweden to meet with Reinfeldt?