What happens if O doesn’t make it into the Riksdag?
O will then have demonstrated that the system isn’t entirely fair, and that it’s not the fault of either the traditional parties or the voters. It’s a systemic flaw. Elections in a representative democracy aren’t 100% representative.
The mere fact that this has been made clear is already a success in terms of optimizing the Swedish democracy.
What happens if O gets 4% or more
and enters the Riksdag?
O will follow the Riksdag’s procedures, and O’s members of parliament will take on the responsibility of participating in all votes in the Riksdag and voting against all proposals—even when those proposals are the best possible ones for the entire Swedish population.
O does not engage in party politics, but rather forces the other parties to work harder and better; that is, if it truly is the best possible proposal for the entire Swedish population, the other parties will have no trouble whatsoever in securing the necessary 175 votes across all parties.
What about the money?
Simple. The money from those who aren’t currently represented is used by all the parties in the Riksdag—without representing them.
It’s used to fund all sorts of things, such as trollfactories, aggressive telemarketing for lotteries, or simply nepotism and cover-ups, etc.—clear examples of how Swedish politics has made international headlines.
O does not take money from the people, but from the traditional parties that have not earned it. O will use the money to grow even larger and to find more ways to put even more pressure on the system. The harder the traditional parties are forced to work, the better the politics the people—all the people—will get.
O will take that money and represent the unrepresented. This means that people must become members of parliament and attend every vote in the Riksdag to vote against and give visibility to the unrepresented.
So who will be O’s members of parliament?
People like you. People from civil society. People from the cultural sector, the education system, and the business community.
No political elite. No career politicians.
Maybe you? If you can vote “no,” you can become an O member of parliament.*
You must register to run as a candidate. Go to “Before the Election” to find the registration link.
* Please note that the fact that O enters the Riksdag and that you register as a candidate does not guarantee that you will become an O member of the Riksdag. It will depend on how many seats O wins and on the rules governing the appointment of people to those seats.
This will be a collective decision.
Isn’t it too much money just to say no?
Yes, it’s a lot of money. It’s also the main reason to take it away from the parties that accept the money without representing those who aren’t represented—in other words, without earning it.
Voting “no” in the Riksdag is the visible part; in other words, it’s a simplification of what O stands for and does.
However, it is a reasonable request to have insight into how taxpayers’ money is going to be used.
Would voters for the traditional parties have voted for them if they had known exactly what those parties were going to do with their money? Perhaps not. Some of the spending funded by taxpayers’ money has not been understood by the public.
However, it is also impossible to specify in detail what the money will be used for if one does not know how much money is involved.
That said, O wants to make the entire system fairer, which includes how O will manage voters’ money.
There are parties in the Riksdag that impose a tax on their members of parliament, meaning that the members pay the party to represent the party’s voters in the Riksdag and transfer a percentage of their salary.
There are also parties in the Riksdag that pay their members of parliament; that is, in addition to their parliamentary allowance, they receive additional funds from their party, which are financed by their members and other sources of revenue.
O prefers the first option, i.e., O’s members of parliament will be taxed by O. Exactly how much the members of parliament must transfer to O will be decided collectively, i.e., a fair salary will be decided jointly.
A fair salary for a job done fairly: attending all votes, voting against all proposals in the Riksdag, and handling all the pressure that comes with standing up for a fairer system.
Lastly, O will continue to devise ways to put even more pressure on the system, for example, by expanding its voter base. Opinion polls are conducted every year to show the parties where they stand, and as O continues to grow, all the other parties will realize that they must work harder and better. The work is not done once O enters the Riksdag.
What happens when O wins an absolute majority?
In that case, O stands for Optimism—meaning it would be highly unlikely and far too Optimistic!
When O wins an absolute majority, it means that more than half of Sweden’s eligible voters do not feel represented by the traditional parties, and that will spell the end of the system as we know it. It will mean that none of the traditional parties has chosen to present a program that voters can accept. Sweden will find itself in an institutional and political crisis; and the entire political system will need to be reorganized. It will mean the end of all parties as we know them, including O.