By Andrea Gómez Bobillo, Daniel Mckenna and Mark Riesthuis
Stand of the Feminist Initiative at Brunnsparken
With the upcoming elections, Swedish political parties are on the streets doing the best they can to gather votes. When walking around on Kungsportsplatsen, Gothenburg, representatives of all big parties are seen there to talk to their potential voters. Big group discussions are going on at the controversial Swedish Democrats, more casual but still vivid conversations are held at the Greens. Walk to another big square in town, Brunnsparken, and there is just one more party handing out flyers, completely isolated from the other parties: the Feminist Initiative (FI). A polar opposite to what can be found moments away; no discussions, no groups gathering. People have a brief chat with them, potentially they will take a flyer and leave. “The biggest news on Sunday will be that we will be in parliament,” says a very confident volunteer for the party.
“In order to be counted within the polls and partake in debates you have to have 4% of the national vote”
Upon reflection this statement seems questionable, given that Brunnsparken is a political wasteland by comparison, but it does beg the question as of why this is the case. “In order to be counted within the polls and partake in debates you have to have 4% of the national vote”, says the spokesperson of the FI. Truth is however, that the Feminist Initiative came just below this with 3.1% in the general elections of 2014. “If you ask who would like us in parliament right now, then that would be 11% of the population”, the spokesperson states.
“We have a strong platform within social media, but very often when we write articles they do not get accepted within other media”, explains another FI-volunteer at Brunnsparken. The only media attention the party did get in the past years, was for dubious reasons. In 2010, the party gained worldwide media attention by burning 100 thousand Swedish kronor to raise awareness for unequal pay for men and women. More recently, the now ex-party leader was prosecuted for assault of a ticket inspector, and another member left the party after alleged anti-semitic remarks. Both of these incidents happened last summer.
Stands of the leading political parties at Kungsportsplatsen
Can the Feminist Initiative reach the minimum voting percentage if social media is their only medium? Only a few days before the important day, FI counts with 40 thousand followers on Twitter and 138 thousand likes on Facebook, which is around half the support of their main opponent, the Swedish Democrats, have on social media. Not only that, but they don’t have the media coverage the big parties have. “If you use social media then you have to look for it, but if we were in a newspaper then its right there. It is a much fairer way of getting your message out”.
With the current system as it stands, it seems that the Feminist Initiative are destined to remain in this political limbo, constantly chasing their tails to be accepted as part of the political status quo, and to maybe gain a position at Kungsportplatsen next elections.
