Is our democracy under threat?

General election in Sweden on Sunday. This was the scene at "plattan" at Sergels torg a few days ago. Representatives from all the major political parties in Stockholm in an election debate. The democracy question from Anders Bolling surprised all of them, and no one said a word...

The Mayor

This is Gilbert de Wendel, the Mayor of Haninge. He is retiring now after eight years as Mayor. But he told me that he will stay in politics for a few years as a lay judge. His big hobby is sailing so he will probably have more time for that now. We met at the Björklund horse farm on Saturday when I was heading home and Gilbert was out walking his dog. I asked him about a rumour I had heard about the new National harness racing track planned for Tungelsta, but the latest I had heard was that it had been moved to Kalvsvik. The Mayor claimed to have no knowledge about that.

A Political Portrait

Sitting on my veranda reading the morning paper on Saturday I suddenly heard someone singing. I jumped on the bike and headed over to the park. The first thing I noticed there was two politicians. The man in the grass is Raymond Svensson from the Centre Party. He is a full time politician and group leader for his party in Haninge. And also the chairman of the Archipelago Foundation. It was the Centre Party that had organized this event. Did I mention that it is an election year? The surprising thing was the entertainer who sang Bellman and Taube in front of the old greenhouse. It was Mikael Trolin, also known as The Prince, (and yes, he is a real Prince, see my portrait of him from two years ago). He is now the leader of the Liberal Party in Haninge. And is running for a seat in the Swedish Riksdag. He was doing his coalition partner a favour by singing a few songs during this meeting. And as I sat down next to the blogging Raymond Svensson, The Prince sang the Dalarö Song for his friend.

We hereby declare...

The very dangerous road between Haninge and Nynäshamn (a port city), have been an issue for a couple of decades. The nick name for Road 73 has been The Road of Death. Many people have lost their lives here, and everyone you talk to seem to know someone who has died here. A couple of years ago construction of a new road finally started. And on Saturday the second part of the road opened for traffic. Thousands of people attended the opening ceremony that took place on the road at Överfors near Ösmo in Nynäshamn. It took eight people to declare the new road open, and you can see them all here with scissors in hand. They are:

Per Unckel, County Governor in Stockholm.
Ilija Batljan,Municipal Commissioner of Nynäshamn.
Åsa Torstensson, Minister for Transportation.
Lena Erixon, Director-general at the Swedish Road Administration.
Anders Granat, County Governor Gotland.
Christer Agerback,Managing director from the Swedish Road Administration.
Gilbert de Wendel, Municipal Commissioner in Haninge.
Ulla Hamilton, Municipal Commissioner from Stockholm City.

Before and after the speeches from all the politicians and the moderator Rikard Olsson, there was high class entertainment starting with a few songs from the well known composer Stefan Nilsson and a 200-strong choir. After that a popular circus group performed ( I will show you some photos and portraits in the coming days). They were followed onto the stage by a popular Swedish boy band, E.M.D. which got the full attention from all the young girls in the crowd. When all was said and done, guess what I did? I decided to go for a bike ride on the new road. It was a strange feeling as I was all alone on the new road. On the second photo I was going downhill and decided to shoot a Look Mom, No Hands! photo. It was still a few hours left before the road was opened for traffic, and I rode the twelve kilometre stretch to the Tungelsta junction as I wanted. Stopping here and there for photos. With a kilometre left I noticed a man walking on the road. It was a former road engineer that had got the same idea as me. This was my last ever bike ride on this road, as bicycles are not allowed here, but from now the old road will be used by slow traffic only, and that's where you will find me in the future.