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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 21-Sep-2010
21-Sep-10 News -- Sweden shocked at anti-immigrant victories

Web Log - September, 2010

21-Sep-10 News -- Sweden shocked at anti-immigrant victories

China threatens Japan over detention of fishing boat captain

Swedes shocked as 'far right' party springs from nothing in election

Some 6,000 people gathered in central Stockholm square on Monday evening at 6 pm to protest electoral success of the far-right political party, Swedish democrats, shouting "No to racism!" according to Swedish Wire.

"It has been a big shock for me that they got so many votes," said one person. Another was quoted as saying, "It is very important to show that the big majority of the Swedish population is against the right-wing extremists like the Sweden Democrats." The headlines in Monday's Stockholm's newspapers read, "Chaos!"

Sweden's Parliament seat distribution prior to Sunday's election <font face=Arial size=-2>(Source: Reuters)</font>

Sweden's Parliament seat distribution prior to Sunday's election (Source: Reuters)

Sunday's parliamentary election has caused two major problems for Swedes.

The first is the election of politicians that many believe are racist, according to Reuters.

I've read and heard some of the positions of the Swedish Democrats in various newspapers and on the BBC. Swedish Democratic party members claim that immigrants are coming to Sweden only to take advantage of the country's very generous "socialist" social programs. Under the slogan, "Keep Sweden Swedish," they wish to slow down the rate of immigration by 90%. They also demand assimilation -- expecting immigrants to adopt the Swedish language and culture -- and reject integration -- which allows enclaves of immigrants to maintain their own languages and culture.

They emphasize three issues: The economy -- "immigrants are costing the country too much money"; social factors -- "immigrants are importing crime, as immigrants are grossly overrepresentated in crime statistics"; and cultural factors - "Swedes don't feel at home in their own cities."

Swedes in particular, and Europeans in general, are being roiled by bitter issues involving immigration and xenophobia.

As I've reported in the last few days, we've seen bitter outbursts from politicians in Brussels, with an EU commissioner accusing France of using Nazi tactics in their treatment of the Roma Gypsies. There have been similar advances by anti-immigration parties in Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Britain, and elsewhere.

Much of the anti-immigrant sentiment is targeted at Muslims, who have immigrated from Turkey, Iraq, Morocco, Algeria and other Muslim countries.

If any event can be said to have triggered this anti-immigrant wave, a good candidate would be the murder, on November 2, 2004, by a Muslim extremist of filmmaker Theo van Gogh, the great-grandnephew of famous Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh, triggering widespread violence against Muslims. (See "Dutch Mosques and Churches burning after terrorist murder of author.")

And then, just two weeks later, the Dutch people were given the opportunity to vote on the greatest Dutchman of all time. They rejected Rembrandt van Rijn, Vincent van Gogh, Erasmus, and William of Orange, and selected instead Pim Fortuyn, a harshly anti-immigrant politician who had been murdered two years earlier by an animal rights activist. (See "Dutch vote murdered anti-Islamic polemicist as 'Greatest Dutchman of all time'.")

Since that time, Europe has been trending increasingly towards xenophobia in general and Islamophobia in particular, a phenomenon we've also witnessed in America, as I've previously discussed.

I said that Sunday's election presented Sweden with two problems.

The second problem is that Sweden now is facing political chaos because it has a hung Parliament. The diagram above shows the distribution of seats prior to Sunday's election. There were seven major parties, split into two coalitions.

The governing coalition was "The Alliance," a center-right coalition consisting of the Moderate, Liberty, Centre and Christian Democrat parties.

The opposition was the "Red-Green coalition," a center-left group of Social Democrats, Left Party and Green Party.

After Sunday's election, neither of the above coalitions has a majority of seats. The Swedish Democrats, who previously had held zero seats, now hold 20 seats. The Alliance now has 172 seats, and the Red-Green coalition now has 157 seats.

The Alliance now has to persuade one of the Red-Green parties to join the Alliance, according to Reuters. Of course, one coalition or the other could ask the Swedish Democrats to work with them, giving that coalition a majority, but politicians in both coalitions are holding their noses at such a prospect right now.

Hence the newspaper headlines: "Chaos!"

From the point of view of Generational Dynamics, we're seeing in action trends that I've been writing about for years, since they always occur during generational crisis eras.

One trend is an increase in xenophobia, which has surged around the world in the last ten years. The reason is the disappearance of the survivors of WW II. The Silent Generation that grew up during the war suffered a kind of generational child abuse that made them seek compromise and conciliation. As long as they were around, the kind of racial attitudes exemplified by the Nazis could never happen again. Now that younger generations are replacing the Silents, racial and ethnic xenophobia is sharply increasing.

The other trend is political chaos, leading to a major political realignment in a way that can't be predicted. In America, we can see that happening through the instrument of the Tea Party. In Europe, we're seeing the rise of multiple anti-immigrant parties that cause increasing conflict, and even hatred.

The old joke is that history never repeats itself, but it rhymes. We're not seeing the rise of a new Hitler or a new Holocaust in Europe today, but we are seeing the gradual rise of something that's very different, but not really different at all.

Additional links

China's Foreign Ministry has issued a statement expressing "strong indignation and protest ... over the decision of continuing [Japan's] illegal detention of the Chinese [fishing boat] captain. [If] the Japanese side does not release the Chinese captain immediately and unconditionally, China will take strong counter-measures. The Japanese side shall be held responsible for all the consequence. Wang also stressed that the incident caused by Japan has caused serious damage to China-Japan relations. What will happen in the future totally depends on what choices Japan makes." Foreign Ministry of the People's Republic of China

North Korea had been scheduled to hold the first party congress in 30 years in early September. The meeting never took place, giving rise to speculation about infighting and government crisis. But now the official announcement is that the Workers Party of Korea will meet on September 28. One possible outcome is the the increasingly frail president Kim Jong-il will announce that his successor will be his youngest son, Kim Jong-un. This transition of power into the hands of a young boy will certainly cause a powerful struggle with uncertain outcome. Bloomberg

There have been rumors that the European Central Bank will be forced to bail out Ireland, in the same way that the ECB was forced to bail out Greece. Credit default swap prices and bond yields have been reaching historic highs, as they did just before the Greece bailout, and speculators are licking their chops. A crisis could come as early as today (Tuesday), when Ireland tries to sell $1.96 billion in government bonds. Bloomberg

Politicians are meeting in New York this week to congratulate themselves on the cleverness of the "Millennium Development Goals," even though they've been largely a failure. The plan, which was launched in the year 2000, was to Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; Achieve universal primary education; Promote gender equality, and empower women; Reduce child mortality; Improve maternal care; Combat serious disaeses; Onsure environmental sustainability; and Create a global partnership for development. (These sound like President Obama's 2008 campaign promises.) However, the despite the mutual congratulations of the politicians, they've accomplished little. Spiegel

United States diplomats are telling Europeans that they're concerned that the Mideast peace talks are about to collapse, because both sides are holding fast to their positions. Thus, the Israelis is refusing to extend the settlement building moratorium that expires on September 26, and the Palestinians will not agree to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Long-time readers of this web site are already well aware that a peace agreement is impossible, since Generational Dynamics predicts that Jews and Arabs will be re-fighting the genocidal war that followed the partitioning of Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Haaretz

If someone wants to steal your identity, the easiest way is to check your mailbox for tax notices. Even though they've been ordered not to do so, the IRS puts your full social security number, along with your name and address, on all tax notices mailed to you. An identity thief obtaining just one of these notices will be able to steal your identity. Fierce Government IT

(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion, see the 21-Sep-10 News -- Sweden shocked at anti-immigrant victories thread of the Generational Dynamics forum. Comments may be posted anonymously.) (21-Sep-2010) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 21-Sep-2010 21-Sep-10 News -- Sweden shocked at anti-immigrant victories

Swedes shocked as 'far right' party springs from nothing in election

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 21-Sep-2010
21-Sep-10 News -- Sweden shocked at anti-immigrant victories