Thursday, September 21, 2006

Max Andersson, MP

The votes have been counted, and I will become a member of the Swedish Parliament when it opens on October 2:nd. If you ask me how it feels, the answer is: "Pretty wonderful."

Unfortunately, the red-green alliance that has been in power these last eight years has lost the election, and the Green Party will now be part of the opposition. That's bad, but it will leave me more time to campaign against the EU and put forth the positive advantages of withdrawal.

Eurosceptic policies are not only politically right. If presented right, they're vote-winners. I will do my best to present a strong eurosceptic message that will help us get back in power - and into government - in 2010.

Now let's hope that the ECJ wont make my job all too easy by doing something stupid in the Vaxholm case!

Monday, September 18, 2006

The right won the election

Unfortunately, the right wing Alliance has won yesterday's election. Sweden will now get a new government, even more europhile than the one before. After twelve years in government the Socialdemocrats were tired. They didn't manage to present their vision and they failed to get their supporters to the polls.

On the other hand the Green Party got a good result and we increased our vote. In Gothenburg we had our best result ever, and according to the latest figures we will have 2 new MPs instead of just one. We will know who they are on Wednesday at the latest.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

New Blog

I have started a new blog in Swedish to keep me busy before the election.

Max Andersson - En EU-motståndare på väg till riksdagen.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Blog Pause

This blog, irregularly up-dated at best, will take a pause until the 17:th of September, when I'll be blogging the count of Election Night.

It seems I have been put on top of the Green Party list in Gothenburg, which means that I have a pretty good chance of entering parliament this autumn. It also means I have a fair amount of campaigning to do.

I'll be campaigning on a strong message in favour of congestion charging, climate action and withdrawal from the EU.

But with six months to go it's time to face up to the fact that the readers of this blog don't have the vote in Gothenburg. So a brief pause is in order.

I'll might be starting a blog in Swedish though.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Eurobarometer

In polls on EU-politics the phrasing of the question can have a tremendous effect on the outcome. Recently the Eurobarometer found that 38% of the Finns considered EU-membership a good thing, while only 22% considered it bad. On the face of it, that seems pretty conclusive. But another poll at the same time found that the Finns would have voted no in a referendum on EU-membership and that only 44% would have voted yes.

I believe this shows that the Eurobarometer underestimates the negative feelings towards the EU in Finland, but also that a large part of the Eurosceptic majority showed in the survey is rather shallow.

The Eurobarometer (EB) is hardly as trustworthy as Statistics Sweden - some questions are obviously biased - but it's still worth reading, mainly because there are several differently worded questions which allows us to get better view on the subject than other polls that only ask a single question.

I've studied the latest EB-results and found some interesting results.

Question: Is EU-membership a good thing?
To this 39% of Swedes answered Yes. This is down from 44% in the spring. Unfortunately only 32% say it's a bad thing. But this is only the hard-core of Euroscepticism.

There are many countries in which fewer people consider EU-membership a good thing (Finland 38%, Austria 32%, UK 34%, Cyprus 36%), but there is no place in the EU that can meassure up to our strong 32% who are willing to say that EU-menbership is a bad thing. (UK comes in second with their 28%.) The name of this blog: Eurosceptic Sweden, is validated once more.

Question: Has (YOUR COUNTRY) benefitted from EU-membership?
On this question only 32% answered Yes. This is pretty good and it's down by 4% since last time. I believe it's interesting to compare this result with the 39% who thought membership them a good thing. I wonder if the difference between them represents a section of the electorate whose EU-postive views are quite soft and open to change?

But the real news are to be found on the other side of this question - no less than 56% of Swedes are of the opinion that Sweden has not benefited from the EU. This is significant. Public opinion in Sweden doesn't think that the EU is a great benefit - most Swedes who are not Eurosceptics consider it a marginal issue - so whenever a Europhile get upset about our withdrawalist heresies in a public debate he is certain to loose. (Note to self: Don't wait for them to be provoked next time. Bring it on!)

Sweden is not the only country whose citicens consider that the EU hasn't benefitted them. In the UK the balande is 37%-47%, in Austria 35%-48%, and in Finland the balance is 45%-47%, which by the way is much more in tune with the poll I cited earlier. I'm also a bit surprised by the results from Cyprus - 39% in favour outnumbered by 53% who think the country hasn't benefitted. Cyprus is not know to me as a strongly Eurosceptic country and I wonder what might be behind this.

Enlargement
Sweden is no longer so fervently in favour of enlargement as we once were. According to the new figures 48% are in favour, and 46% are against. Still this marks us out as one of the most enlargement-friendly nations in the EU. Swedish Euroscepticism is definitely not due to xenophobia. When it comes to the hottest question - should Turkey be allowed to join? - Swedes are the second most positive of all nations in the EU. The Cypriots are the only one's who are even more favourably disposed to Turkish membership than us, and considering their situation that is no big surprise.

Personally I'm strongly in favour of an enlargement with Turkey. The EU will never be able to swallow it, and it might block the developement to a federal superstate for a very long time. I think Giscard d'Estaign and his ilk are right to be worried.

There's more in the Eurobarometer, but this is enough blogging for tonight.

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Another victory for Sweden, sort of

Sweden has won yet another medal in the EU-wide competion about which country is to pay the most. Depending on how you count it, it's either the Gold or the Bronze. According to the latest figures, Sweden will pay net 130 € per capita every year, which is highest in the EU.

However, if we compare the net contributions to BNI, Sweden only comes third. We're estimated to pay 0,37%, following France at 0,39% and Germany at 0,41%. But this prediction takes no account of the traditional Swedish reluctance to co-finance the mis-use of Regional Funds, which leads to that money being returned to the EU. Maybe, if we work on it, we could still steal the Silver from the French!

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

It's Alive!

Deep in the dusty cellars of the Berlaymont, hidden from the world, lies the Constitutional Monstrosity, captive in a gigantic freezer. But will it remain thus forever?

No, a mad German scientist, and her Portuguese henchman Igor Jose Socrates are planning to revive it and set it loose upon an unsuspecting world...

Don't miss "THE RETURN OF THE CONSTITUTION!"

Coming soon to a referendum near you during 2007.