Oisin Cantwell
Published: Less than 30 min ago
Updated: Less than 20 min ago
This is a commenting text. Analysis and positions are the writer's.
COLUMNISTS
A speaker who denies Darwin's discoveries and doubts that dinosaurs ever existed.
It will be difficult to explain to the grandchildren why the Riksdag decided one autumn day in 2022 without apparent coercion to make Sweden the joke of Europe.
How did this poor nation even end up in this situation?
There are answers, of course, and the misery was dealt with in practice even before the Riksdag secretly opened today, the day before the king's traditional speech and the official opening of the Riksdag year 22/23.
The rain poured down over Stockholm this Monday, a fact in which poets, editorial writers on the left and other loose folk can probably find a suitably fateful symbolism.
Newly elected (roughly 90 in number) and old legislators started arriving at the Riksdag as early as nine o'clock in the morning.
In the café a couple of floors up it was crowded and giggling. Politicians in small groups who jeered and giggled. Anticipation in the air.
- I have never sat in opposition, sighed a social democrat who was elected in 2014.
She looked sad and lonely. But then there is also nothing sadder and lonelier than a boy who has been deprived of his power.
The newly elected members of parliament seemed to be the happiest. If the poor people only knew what the future holds!
Stupidly languishing in some committee year in and year out, only to then be scandalized by Assignment review after cheating on compensation for accommodation.
In the chamber foyer, reporters and photographers crowded and chased after Lööf, Busch and the others.
Sweden Democrat Linus Bylund squeezed past without giving out a single rugby tackle. Leftist Ali Esbati was chewing on a sandwich. Liberal Johan Pehrson roared and laughed.
A photographer knocked down the map where all members of the Riksdag were mentioned by name and seat number in the chamber.
Magdalena Andersson slipped into the cabinet room, a VIP room for ministers, with her court. Last time for a long time?
- We'll see how long Kristersson can handle this, said a social democratic press elf confidently.
The moderate Elisabeth Svantesson slipped by.
- Future finance minister, I tried.
- You never know, she chirped and floated on.
The clock began to approach eleven and the election of the Speaker. The queue of politicians for the toilets next to the chamber was as long as any pub on Stureplan on a Friday night.
Exactly at the appointed time, the social democratic senior president Carina Olsson gave the so-called greeting speech. And after a few pirouettes, it was time for the vote for the Speaker.
There is no clear practice in this matter.
Since the introduction of the unicameral Riksdag in 1971, the Social Democrats have claimed that the largest party should hold the position of speaker. Coincidentally, S is the largest party.
The moderates are of the opinion that the largest party in the bloc that forms the basis for government should hold the office. As if by chance, it has been M that has been the biggest when the bourgeois bloc has been in power.
Now it was neither or. Andreas Norlén, representative of the now third largest party, was re-elected. And not only that: he was elected unanimously, which has not happened before.
Andreas Norlen. Photo: Lotte Fernvall/Aftonbladet
This is partly due to the fact that the moderate during his four years as speaker built up trust across the bloc border, and partly to the fact that parties on the left did not want to hear about a Sweden Democratic speaker.
Kenneth G Forslund (s) was just as undramatically elected first vice chairman.
Then the misery began. The Moderates, the Christian Democrats, the Liberals and the Sweden Democrats had nominated Julia Kronlid (SD) for the position of second deputy speaker.
Yes, the same Member of Parliament who put one Riksdag motion after another that has criticized the right to abortion or even wanted to restrict it.
The same Kronlid who in an interview a few years ago questioned the theory of evolution and who suggested that it be presented in school as one theory among others, as if evolution is not proven by the collected science.
The same Kronlid who, when she was still on the move, claimed that a higher power is behind "all creation" and that life on earth arose six thousand years ago.
In short, Julia Kronlid professes to creationism: the world and its living being came into being through a divine creation.
The Speaker is second in rank to the King. The deputy speakers are substitutes who lead debates and votes in the chamber when the regular speaker cannot. They also have representative assignments in international contexts.
In other words, the task is no small matter.
Seriously right wing, couldn't you have produced a better candidate than this?
The first vote, with Stone Age rules, where anonymous slips were put in an urn, ended with neither Kronlid nor the opposing candidate, Janine Alm Ericson, the environmentalist, getting a majority.
Julia Kronlid. Photo: Lotte Fernvall
Why did only 173 of the right-wing bloc's 176 members vote for Kronlid?
It was teased and teased. Liberals who defied the party line? Sweden Democrats who were angry because their friend Björn Söder was wrong?
At 14.30 it was time for a new vote. New notes in the big blue-green-yellow urn. Senior President Olsson once again rattled off the name and chamber seat of every single politician who cast his vote.
And once again how it had voted.
Julia Kronlid...Blank...Blank...Julia Kronlid...Julia Kronlid... Janine Alm Ericson...Blank...
The Sweden Democrats received 174 votes this time. Minimum possible majority.
Members of Parliament applauded. Kronlid stood up and bowed discreetly in different directions.
It was a quarter past three when the Riksdag had finally succeeded in its attempt to appoint Sweden as Europe's village flag.
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