Scandals weaken Sweden's Social Democrats

For years the chairman of the Swedish Social Democratic Worker's Party, Håkan Juholt, has illegally filed for the full expense allowance for his second home in Stockholm, although he was only entitled to half of it. His predecessor Mona Sahlin had to resign her post as minister in the 1990s because of a similar affair. For the liberal daily Aamulehti Juholt's days as party chairman are numbered: "Although formally the party elite still stands behind its chairman, at the moment everything is in confusion and no one knows what will happen next. However hardly anyone still believes the Social Democrats can seriously challenge the conservative governing coalition with Juholt at its helm in the 2014 parliamentary elections. After two catastrophic elections Sahlin's successor Juholt had to avoid making the slightest mistake. But that's not how things have turned out. Perhaps the party grass roots would have turned a blind eye to this affable man from Småland's abuse of the expense allowance if he had shown what mettle he's made of as party leader over the last year. Unfortunately he has not."

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