The European Parliament election in Sweden - only half of Scania represented

On the seventh of June it is the election of the European Parliament. It is by no means the first time it has been held in Sweden. There has indeed been three prior to the upcoming election, since Sweden joined the EU in 1994. The interest in the election has been and is still low.

This year it is better somewhat. For one thing, the campaign trail of the different Swedish candidates is much better covered. However, that is compared to the distressingly low coverage level on the previous elections. Furthermore, as much as 44% of the young between 18 to 28 years old do not even know there is an election.

But which party should you choose (one test here) and who are the candidates really (another test here)?

More imortantly, which of the candidates is your Scanian candidate?

Scrutinizing the candidates of the different parties the following picture is emerging:

Moderata samlingspartiet (M). Out of the 43 electable candidates (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) there are five candidates seemingly from Scania: 1. Gunnar Hökmark (Ystad) (Scanian), 5. Hans Wallmark (Vejbystrand), 9. Pia Kindhult (Ängelholm) (not Scanian), 13. Carl Johan Sonesson (Malmö) and 35. Boriana Åberg (Kävlinge). That makes about 11.6% 'from' Scania.

Folkpartiet liberalerna (FP). Out of the 42 electable candidates (1) there are three candidates seemingly from Scania: 2. Olle Schmidt (Malmö) (not Scanian) (1), 13. Tina Acketoft (Höganäs) and 40. Gilbert Tribo (Kristianstad). That makes about 7.1% 'from' Scania.

Centerpartiet (C). Out of the 45 electable candidates (1) there are three candidates seemingly from Scania: 9. Birte Sandberg (Tomelilla), 33. Agnetha Persson (Svalöv) and 43. Mattias Andersson (Kävlinge). That makes about 6.7% 'from' Scania.

Socialdemokraterna (S). Out of the 30 electable candidates (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) there are two candidates seemingly from Scania: 7. Hillevi Larsson (Malmö) (Scanian) (2) and 12. Niklas Karlsson (Landskrona). That makes about 6.7% 'from' Scania.

Kristdemokraterna (KD). Out of the 54 electable candidates (1, 2, 3, 4) there are four candidates seemingly from Scania: 5. Tuve Skånberg (Skillinge), 24. Daniel Sturesson (Ljungbyhed), 32. Kenneth Lantz (Helsingborg) and 42. Per Staffan Johansson (Mölle). That makes about 7.4% 'from' Scania.

Miljöpartiet (MP). Out of the 30 electable candidates (1) there are three candidates seemingly from Scania: 4. Ulf Holm (Lund), 10. Fredrik Frangeur (Malmö) and 11. Lotta Hedström (Österlen) (Not Scanian). That makes 10.0% 'from' Scania. In addition, MP are reported as being the party that rallies its voters the best.

Vänsterpartiet (V). Out of the 3 (?) electable candidates (1) there are no candidates seemingly from Scania.

Junilistan (JL). Out of the 46 electable candidates (1) there are six candidates seemingly from Scania: 9. Roland Thord (Simrishamn) (not Scanian), 10. Johan Olson (Bjärred), 13. Birgitta Sandblom (Trelleborg), 18. Folke Schimanski (Ramlösa), 21. Nemat Salehi (Ystad) and 26. Jonas Täljsten (Malmö). That makes about 13.0% 'from' Scania.

Feministiskt initiativ (FI). Out of the 5 electable candidates there are one candidate seemingly from Scania: 1. Gudrun Schyman (Simrishamn) (not Scanian). That makes 20.0% 'from' Scania.

Piratpartiet (PP). Out of the 20 electable candidates (1, 2, 3) there are five candidates seemingly from Scania: 2. Amelia Andersdotter (Lund), 8. Gustaf Nipe (Malmö), 13. Ellen Söderberg (Malmö), 16. Snild Dolkow (Lund) and 19. Sandra Grosse (Helsingborg). That makes 25.0% 'from' Scania.

Sverigedemokraterna (SD). Out of the 29 electable candidates (1) there are three candidates seemingly from Scania: 5. Carina Herrstedt (Landskrona), 6. Kent Ekeroth (Lund) and 9. Sten Andersson (Malmö). That makes 10.3% 'from' Scania. They also to send their ballots with official Region Skåne envelopes recently.

In most cases it is not quite enough, considering the population of Scania is 13% of the total population in Sweden.

The only parties that have an appropriate amount of candidates reflecting the percentage of the Scanian population that seemingly are Scanian or at least live here are: Junilistan, Feministiskt initiativ and Piratpartiet.

None of the established parties in Swedish politics or Sverigedemokraterna have more than 11.6% of Scanian candidates. The mean is actually considerably lower, 7.1%! That is sligthly more than half of the Scanian population!

Is it really alright that Scania is significantly less democratically represented than the rest of Sweden?

Can anyone else besides me see a pattern here?

The Scanan situation in the European Parliament might get better or worse on the 7th of June compared to the last election in 2004 depending on your vote!

If people are not using the oportunity of chosing a candidate lower down or only choosing the top name on each ballot the outcome is easier to predict. Two examples are given below.

1. If we e.g. consider that any of the political parties above get maximum 30% of the Swedish vote i.e. 5.7 delegates, then the maximum number of candidates from that party from Scania would be two (11%). That would mean voting for M.

2. If we e.g. consider that the political parties above get the same number of mandates as in the previous election in 2004 then it would be (total Swedish mandates and percentage in brackets):

1 Scanian MP for M (4; 21.1%)
0 Scanian MP for FP (1; 5.3%)
0 Scanian MP for C (1; 5.3%)
0 Scanian MP's for S (5; 26.3%)
0 Scanian MP for KD (2; 10.5%)
0 Scanian MP for MP (1; 5.3%)
0 Scanian MP for V (2; 10.5%)
0 Scanian MP for JL (2; 10.5%)
1 Scanian MP for FI (1; 5.3%)

In total, two Scanian MP's (11%), of which one is not really Scanian (Gudrun Schyman).

Furthermore, in the previous election in 2004, ten MP's out of the 19 were listed as being from Stockholm i.e. a mind-blowing 53%! Only two MP's (11%), of which at least one is not really Scanian (Olle Schmidt), were listed as being from Scania.

Who is saying that Sweden is not a centralistic state?

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