The Swedish election is a mess.

For you to understand first I need to explain how the political parties of Sweden work. There’s seven big parties which have been around for a long time and these seven are split in two coalitions. It’s the left-wing “Red-Greens” with the Social Democratic Party, Left Party (which I vote for) and Green Party and then there’s the right-wing “Alliance” with the Moderate Party, Liberal People’s Party, Centre Party and the Christian Democrats.

In this election The Social Democratic Party got the most votes but didn’t win the election because the right-wing four party coalition got more votes together than the left-wing three party coalition. However the right-wing coalition didn’t get majority in the parliament because of a eight party getting into the parliament this year. The racist Sweden Democrats.

Now the right-wing coalition have 173 seats in the parliament, the left-wing coalition 156 and the Sweden Democrats 20. That means the Sweden Democrats can give either side the majority depending which side they choose to support. The thing is neither side wants to work with the Sweden Democrats to get majority and neither side wants to work with each other to make sure the Sweden Democrats don’t get to set the majority.

So all in all the party with the most votes didn’t win and the coalition with the most votes didn’t win either. And we now have racists in the parliament with the power to tip Sweden either right or left. I would rather have the right-wing have majority in the parliament than the Sweden Democrats in this position of power and that says a lot about what I think about the Sweden Democrats because I hate the right-wings politics. In the end, racism is worse though.

Plugs: Shaina

In some Swedish schools it’s forbidden to wear clothes with the Swedish flag on because it’s associated with racism. It’s absolutely absurd! By doing so we’re giving our flag to the racists. We’re saying that the flag is theirs. It’s not. They might use it as a symbol of the things they stand for but what the Swedish flag truly stands for is Sweden as a country.

Apparently there’s people who are offended by others wearing clothes with the flag on. At least that’s what the principals at those schools say. In actuality it’s not the clothes they’re offended by but the opinions of some of the people wearing those clothes. If a immigrant wore a shirt with a Swedish flag on I doubt his/her immigrant friends would find that offensive. However if someone with racist opinions do they probably will.

But is the solution to forbid our flag? Of course it isn’t. It’s not a racist symbol but we’re pretty damn close to making it so. What we should do is reclaim the flag. Take it back and let it stand for what it’s meant to stand for.

Another thing which isn’t a bad thing but now is considered bad is calling yourself a patriot. Or nationalist. People associate patriotism with racism but the true meaning of the word is simply a person who love her/his country. I love Sweden. I love our freedom, our political system, our equality, our history. So I’m a patriot.

Does that also make me a racist? Of course it doesn’t. It hasn’t anything to do with politics at all. I simply love my country. You can do that no matter if you’re far-left (as I am) or far-right.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard a far-left person call themself a patriot. Most definitely because of what that word is associated with. But I’m a patriot. And a socialist. And a anti-racist.

What do you people from other countries think of this? Are things like this in your countries?

Plugs: Angie, Nimil, Pauline, maria, Shiri, scott, Ivy, Kristine, tiff k, Gabriella, Gel, Malin, Jasmin, Nicki, Becky