More than one in five Jokkmokk residents voted for the Green Party in the municipal election, and in the parliamentary election Jokkmokk became the party's strongest stronghold. Municipal councilor Henrik Blind (MP) was once again a cruise missile.
- The Green Party has made the best election ever in Jokkmokk, but in the end it is about gathering a majority and we are not succeeding in doing that as it looks now. It is clear that it feels sad, he says.
In the most recent term, the municipality has been governed by a majority with the Green Party together with Framtid in Jokkmokk municipality, Samernas vel and the Left Party.
But after this year's election results, it was clear that they did not collect enough mandates. The coalition received a total of eleven mandates. To get a majority in the municipal council, twelve are required.
According to Henrik Blind, the Green Party has sought cooperation among all parties except the Sweden Democrats. But forming a government with the municipality's largest party, the Social Democrats, was quickly ruled out after a meeting between the parties.
- They were clear that they wanted a municipal council. Indirectly, I read that it would be a social democratic one. As for Jokkmokk, I think it would have been good with continued shared leadership, but they didn't seem interested in that. We never had time to discuss any substantive issues.
At the same time, a new government began to be formed - a coalition consisting of the Moderates, the Social Democrats and the Sami people.
The Moderate Party was, after the Green Party, the party that increased the most in the municipality. And it was not only in Jokkmokk that the party achieved success. The party grew in most of the municipalities in the four northernmost counties.
- We are no longer perceived as a metropolitan party, said the Kalix politician and member of the party board, Linda Frohm (M), to DN after the election. She is now also a member of the Riksdag.
But the new coalition in Jokkmokk has already encountered patrols.
Once Samernas decided to enter into a collaboration with S and M, their party leader Karin Vannar resigned and left the party.
She has been with the party for almost a quarter of a century. But the party's swing towards a new collaboration with M and S did not rhyme well with the issues that she and the party have pursued, she believes.
- We are a Sami party, so the Sami issues are most important to us and our members. Like the resistance to a mine in Gallok for example.
During the municipal council on Monday, she gave a speech in Lule Sami.
- I have never spoken Sami in the council at all. But when it turned out like this, I felt "no, dammit, they're going to hear Sami".
The problem is that Karin Vannar holds the party's only mandate in the council and remains a political savage. She has now returned to the former majority.
- There was a completely new government in my party in which I was not involved at all. I think we worked well in the previous administration. And then there is nothing else to do but say thank you and goodbye. We'll see where this goes, but at least I feel like I did the right thing.
Thus, it is eleven-eleven between two coalitions, both of which need twelve mandates to get their policies through. The last decisive mandate belongs to SD.
Henrik Blind (MP) says that he would be surprised if S and M were to govern the municipality with the support of SD.
- Jokkmokk is known for many things right now. I do not think that the Social Democrats want to be known for governing with the support of the Sweden Democrats.
But a collaboration with the Sweden Democrats is unthinkable according to Social Democrats group leader Julia Nord Axelsson.
Why?
- We have fundamentally different ideological thoughts and we don't see that we can come to an agreement with them.
The ten thousand kroner question is how the municipality should be governed without a majority, and neither side has an answer to that at the moment. The new board wants to continue the cooperation with the Sami people. But at the moment, they have to hope that Karin Vannar does not appear in the municipal council, so that a replacement from Samernas can take her place.
- We wanted to highlight the well-being of the Sami because we need help with the Sami issues that are highly topical in Jokkmokk. In December we have elections for committees and boards and the budget. It's probably only after that that we really know how it will turn out, says Julia Nord Axelsson.
