Election watch: ”Leijongate” continued et al
“Leijongate”: There are three more questions that must be answered.
1. Jan Björklund and Erik Ullenhag, two heavyweights in the Liberal Party, have used information they got through espionage in order to prepare political attacks against the Social Democratic Party. How much did they know? Is it totally unlikely that their staffers bragged a little bit about how they got the information?
2. In March, Liberal party secretary Johan Jakobsson learnt about the espionage. He told the “leading spy”, the press secretary of Liberal Youth, to go and tell a journalist about his espionage right away. Is it weird to think Jakobsson told party leader Lars Leijonborg that a big political scandal was about to hit the Liberal Party? Is it weird to think that a party secretary normally informs his party leader about things like this?
3. The right-wing alliance has been bragging about how close they are and how much they hang out together. Can we be sure that the unique information some people in the Liberal Party had also stayed only in the Liberal Party?
Otherwise: My main advice to the Social Democratic party is to stay calm and focus on our own campaign. Talk about all our job proposals, talk to voters about the difference between left and right, and make sure to mobilize the base.
TV-debate Thursday: I think the TV-debate Thursday was a pretty even affair. Göran Persson should have been more concrete about our job proposals, but Reinfeldt had nothing to say when Persson talked about the Conservative proposal to privatize emergency aid in hospitals. Moreover, Reinfeldt was wrong when he talked about tax-cuts in Stockholm County. Reinfeldt said that the Conservative Party wants to lower taxes only by 10 cents/öre, but according to their budget proposal they want to slash taxes by 1,95 kronor (roughly seven billion kronor).
Radio-debate Friday: Another steaming hot debate on public radio today, and Göran Persson won this one. Reinfeldt screwed up the foreign policy section about Iraq totally, and Persson was much more concrete about our job proposals this time. And Reinfeldt really cannot explain why he wants to make life more difficult for the sick, elderly, unemployed, and early retirees. And Reinfeldt really cannot explain how those policies are supposed to create more jobs.
New opinion poll: Left block 48,1 percent, right block 47,6 percent.
From “Politics this week” in The Economist: “A survey of European public opinion revealed rising disapproval of George Bush's handling of international affairs. The survey, conducted by the German Marshall Fund, found that 77% of European Union citizens disapproved of the American president, up from 56% four years ago.”
Red and green: A faithful reader of the newspaper I am working at gave me two pieces of good advice: read the article “A deeper shade of green” in the National Geographic, and this article about Al Gore by Olov Abrahamsson in NSD.
1. Jan Björklund and Erik Ullenhag, two heavyweights in the Liberal Party, have used information they got through espionage in order to prepare political attacks against the Social Democratic Party. How much did they know? Is it totally unlikely that their staffers bragged a little bit about how they got the information?
2. In March, Liberal party secretary Johan Jakobsson learnt about the espionage. He told the “leading spy”, the press secretary of Liberal Youth, to go and tell a journalist about his espionage right away. Is it weird to think Jakobsson told party leader Lars Leijonborg that a big political scandal was about to hit the Liberal Party? Is it weird to think that a party secretary normally informs his party leader about things like this?
3. The right-wing alliance has been bragging about how close they are and how much they hang out together. Can we be sure that the unique information some people in the Liberal Party had also stayed only in the Liberal Party?
Otherwise: My main advice to the Social Democratic party is to stay calm and focus on our own campaign. Talk about all our job proposals, talk to voters about the difference between left and right, and make sure to mobilize the base.
* * *
TV-debate Thursday: I think the TV-debate Thursday was a pretty even affair. Göran Persson should have been more concrete about our job proposals, but Reinfeldt had nothing to say when Persson talked about the Conservative proposal to privatize emergency aid in hospitals. Moreover, Reinfeldt was wrong when he talked about tax-cuts in Stockholm County. Reinfeldt said that the Conservative Party wants to lower taxes only by 10 cents/öre, but according to their budget proposal they want to slash taxes by 1,95 kronor (roughly seven billion kronor).
* * *
Radio-debate Friday: Another steaming hot debate on public radio today, and Göran Persson won this one. Reinfeldt screwed up the foreign policy section about Iraq totally, and Persson was much more concrete about our job proposals this time. And Reinfeldt really cannot explain why he wants to make life more difficult for the sick, elderly, unemployed, and early retirees. And Reinfeldt really cannot explain how those policies are supposed to create more jobs.
* * *
New opinion poll: Left block 48,1 percent, right block 47,6 percent.
* * *
From “Politics this week” in The Economist: “A survey of European public opinion revealed rising disapproval of George Bush's handling of international affairs. The survey, conducted by the German Marshall Fund, found that 77% of European Union citizens disapproved of the American president, up from 56% four years ago.”
* * *
Red and green: A faithful reader of the newspaper I am working at gave me two pieces of good advice: read the article “A deeper shade of green” in the National Geographic, and this article about Al Gore by Olov Abrahamsson in NSD.
* * *
TV again: I was on SVT24 again late Thursday night, talking about the scandal in the Liberal Party, the media and election campaigns. Watch it here [Thursday's show]
posted by Eric Sundström at 5:25 pm
2 Comments:
I have no idea how you find the time to write so much, but those of us that don't understand Swedish and want to know what's going on very much appreciate it!
All the best for the last 8 days of campaigning!
hi Eric!
3-0... What a glorious day for the toffees! But don't worry, there will be a second leg. Only hoping that the victory of the toffees over the reds won't be read as a bad omen for your campaign.
Seen that you are to come over to Brussels fairly soon? Looking forward to seeing you then. Since then, wish you the best with the next elections.
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