Sweden Rejects Euro
By Roger F. Gay

September 15, 2003

Shortly after 8 p.m. (Stockholm), an exit poll showed voters rejecting the euro by 51.8 percent to 46.2 percent, with 2 percent voting "blank." The first few rural districts reported voters against the euro by around 70 percent to less than 30 percent. The difference closed very slowly over the next two hours. Stockholm county was part of the small minority of urban areas that favored the euro. Shortly before 10 p.m. the Prime Minister, who had led the campaign in favor of the euro, announced that the people had spoken.

Slightly over 7 million people were registered to vote on the referendum. Nearly 81 percent of registered voters took part. Just over 100 thousand were Swedish citizens living outside of Sweden and more than 327 thousand were foreigners living in Sweden. A record of approximately 1 million mail-in votes were recorded compared to around 600 thousand for the last general election.

Based on a break-down of counties, it appears that wealthier voters with more education were more in favor of the euro than less educated poorer voters. The slow economy and high unemployment in Europe in recent years played a role in increasing Euro-skepticism. Ironically, businesses that provide mass employment have publicly discussed the possibility that rejection of the euro might cause them to abandon Sweden.

Earlier polls had shown the "No Campaign" with a sizable lead, around 50 percent compared to support for the euro in the low to mid 30s, with 12-14 percent undecided. Shortly after the murder of Sweden's Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, a key euro supporter, polls became somewhat chaotic with more than one showing the gap between the two sides had closed.

Anna Lindh was scheduled to take part in a key last minute debates including one on Wednesday, the day she was stabbed in a Stockholm department store. After she died on Thursday, all political parties agreed to cancel further campaigning. On Saturday evening, representatives from both sides appeared in a televised session to answer phone-in questions, which naturally evolved into something of a debate anyway.

Some analysts commented that the role played by the political parties in the debate may have caused confusion, accounting for a rather high level of undecided voters and making it possible for a large shift to occur at the last minute. Voters really needed accurate information more than partisan debate.

An oversimplified view is that the No Campaign was run primarily by the far left parties. The Yes Campaign was lead by leaders of other parties. Polls and public campaigning against the euro by members of all parties however showed that abandonment of traditional loyalties favored the no side. The No Campaign also got off to an early start, taking the lead while playing on vague fears about foreign control of  Swedish society left over from their anti-European Union campaign.

In an early televised debate, euro proponents objectively defeated euro skeptics; provoking laughter at the opposition. As a purely economic proposal, completed integration by European countries is somewhat of a practical necessity. The left faltered so badly with tired, old, anti-western rhetoric, that one proponent remarked that as a practical matter, they had abandoned their traditional support for international cooperation and solidarity once the Warsaw Pact was disbanded.

At that point, the clearly frustrated and embarrassed leader of the formerly formally communist Left Party pulled off the gloves. She stated that she would take the position that the euro is bad for women; one of the vague claims politicians fear most. This seemed to knock proponents into a state of near unconscious dizziness. The reorganization in the weeks that followed included featuring women favoring the euro on campaign posters. Polls showed women leaning heavily toward voting no. Anna Lindh's murder drew strong sympathies, and may have caused the shift that brought the final tally closer than polls taken before her death.

The two far left parties that led the anti-euro campaign included the formerly formally communist Left Party and the relatively new far left Environmental Party. The Left Party has not allowed men in leadership positions for many years, prompting protests from a few courageous male members at party conferences. The Environment Party currently allows a man to represent them as a co-speaker along with a woman. The Center Party was the third party against the euro. Although historically a centrist party representing rural voters, under its current feminine leadership it has shown the ability to go both ways; perhaps more to the left than previously.

Potentially the most potent argument against the euro is the European Union itself. The Union has fashioned a proposed constitution that would establish the EU as a centralized bureaucratic dictatorship. The Union in Brussels has been run by the left, making direct honest discussion about the dangers of shifting control impossible for local leftist parties. Instead, leaders of the No Campaign said they did not want Europe to become like the United States, accompanied by facial expressions and body language implying that would be wrong. The left, confused as ever, opposes a well-defined federation granting limited powers to Brussels. Instead they've chosen to re-run the Soviet experiment.

Filed by Roger F. Gay for MensNewsDaily.com