EDITORIAL • On Wednesday, the Riksdag voted on stricter citizenship rules. The Tidö parties won the vote despite two political defectors, Elsa Widding and Katja Nyberg, voting against the proposal. The decisive factor was that the Sweden Democrats called in two members who were supposed to be absent and not participate in the vote. Now, the legacy media and mass-immigration advocates in the left-wing parties are furious.
But what the SD did was not just clever. It was a defense of democracy and of what the voters actually chose in the election.
I am reading today’s mock-indignant headlines and statements: “voter fraud,” “absurd,” “manipulation,” “undermining democracy.” But these accusations mainly reveal the monumental contempt that left-liberals have for democracy.
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For what is really the purpose of a democratic election? It is for the people’s will to be reflected in parliament. In the 2022 election, voters secured a majority for the Tidö parties. That decision doesn’t cease to apply just because two people leave their party and begin to act counter to the policies they were elected to promote.
The Left Is Anti-Democratic
Formally, voters choose 349 members of parliament. But in practice, almost everyone votes for parties and political alternatives. Most voters hardly care about exactly which individuals hold the seats. They vote for a political direction.
Both Katja Nyberg and Elsa Widding entered parliament on behalf of the Sweden Democrats, to pursue Sweden Democrats’ policies. Had SD passively accepted that two political defectors hijacked the seats and used them to stop the policies that voters had chosen, that would have been truly undemocratic.
In that scenario, voters would have been deceived, cheated, and robbed of their election result.
The outrage of left-liberals is therefore not about morality. It is about the fact that they lost a vote they thought they were going to win. They would have gladly allowed two defectors to overturn the majority chosen by voters—just as long as the result benefited their own side.
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This is also why their crocodile tears over democracy ring so hollow. What they’re actually saying is: let the voters be deceived, as long as we win.
Unfortunately, parts of the traditional right seem to still be under the influence of left-liberalism, as Expressen reports. There, a leading Moderate reportedly called it a “cluster fuck” and their group leader distanced themselves. They clearly don’t understand that what SD did was stand up for democracy—which means they are not standing up for it. But I’ll have to return to the weakness of the left-liberals at another time.
Deserves Praise
But democracy isn’t about the opposition getting a windfall when a political defector switches sides. Democracy is about respecting the people’s choice.
SD therefore did exactly right. The party took the necessary steps to ensure the election results would be honored, and to make sure the voters’ will wasn’t distorted by two defectors.
For this decisive action, the Sweden Democrats deserve praise. And the left-liberals deserve shame.