Thomas is a retired IT professional, who lives alone with his golden retriever Ziggy Stardust in a small townhouse in a small town in the southern half of Sweden. He has two grown-up kids and at least five grandkids – "as far as I know". Thomas enjoys daily long walks with Ziggy in the forests around town, he loves cooking for his guests, and he likes to make things with his hands. He says he loves good food, good wine, people who smile and make him smile. Having spent most of his life developing things, methods and organizations, he's passionately interested in all kinds of technology, natural science, politics,... anything that raises a problem, whether it can be solved or not. Consequently, he is consistently short of time. While he was professionally active, he lived in San Francisco a few years, working as software engineer down in Silicon Valley. He claims that he did leave his heart in San Francisco, and is constantly planning to go back and pick it up. Quoting Hoagy Carmichael's Hong Kong Blues, he says "... every time I try to leave, sweet opium won't let me fly away... ...i.e. my opium is Sweden, my kids, my dog, my friends, my forest,... you know, I'm Swedish."
So, what happened to the deliberations about a new Swedish government? Before Xmas, the parliament voted “no” to both contenders, Stefan Löfven from the Social Democrats with 144 supporting votes, versus Ulf Kristersson from the right wing/Alliance/Moderates with 143 supporting votes. Nothing much happened, actually, until the last few days. The Speaker announced, before Xmas, […]
December 10, 2018: The formation of a new government in Sweden takes longer this time than ever before. The Speaker of the parliament was expected to propose a vote lst week, to elect (or reject) Stefan Löfven, chairman of the Social Democrats, as prime minister, but the vote has been postponed. Löfven is currently […]
The formation of a new government in Sweden is becoming a confusing serial. Today is 77 days after the election, but the newly elected parliament hasn’t been able to agree on who should become Prime Minister and form a new government. Here’s a summary of what’s happened so far: When the new parliament was assembled […]
On Monday, November 12, after nine weeks of deliberations, the Speaker of the Swedish parliament proposed that Ulf Kristersson, chairman of the Moderate Party (conservative), and leader of the Alliance, should be elected to Prime Minister. As stipulated in the Constitution, the proposal was immediately tabled, i.e. postponed, and further postponed on the next day. […]
Or maybe she had – there’s no record of it, so we don’t really know. Lucia was killed in Syracuse in the year of 304, that is 1714 years ago. In Catholic countries, she has been revered as a saint on December 13, since the fifth century. In Sweden – which is not Catholic – […]
In the wake of the exciting results of the US midterm election… here’s a report about the unclear situation in the Swedish parliament. The confused picture remains in the parliament, even more unclear and wooly than before. After the election the Speaker had one-on-one talks with all party leaders, trying to assess who would have […]
The September election created a deadlock in Swedish politics. The two traditional blocks have almost the same strength in the parliament: on the right side the Alliance (a constellation of four liberal/conservative parties) has 143 seats, and on the left side there are three parties that have 144 seats. Remaining 62 seats belong to an […]
As I predicted before the Swedish election, the political situation in the Swedish parliament has come to a standstill, waiting for a solution. Honestly, it wasn’t a difficult prediction: it was clear for everyone with a slight knowledge of Swedish election rules. The combatants There are two candidates for the post of prime minister: on […]
The election to the Swedish parliament is just one week away (Sept 9). The outcome is unpredictable if you look at recent polls. Negotiations will most likely be long and hard before the newly elected parliament can agree and ask the leader of one party to be Prime Minister and form his own government. Generally […]
