Mona Sahlin, current leader of the Swedish Social Democrats was groomed for future party chairmanship in the mid 90’s, but was forced to temporarily leave the arena after it became known, among other things, that she had used her official credit card for personal use.
When former Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson stepped down as Chairman for the social democrats after losing the last election to a coalition of liberals and conservatives, Sahlin took over leadership of the party. She remained controversial, however, and it is widely felt that both she and the party made several political mistakes.
Swedish public service radio, SR, examined the media image of Mona Sahlin during the last 12 months and compared it to the current Prime Minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt. The analysis was presented on April 13.
During the past 12 months, less than one article in ten about the Conservatives and Reinfeldt has been negative. In contrast, almost three articles out of ten about the Social Democrats and Sahlin has been negative. Sahlin had more coverage than Reinfeldt, but unlike him, she is mostly talked about, rather than being given the opportunity to make actual statements herself.
Professor Kent Asp, a media scholar, told SR that he doesn’t believe the media is actively working against the Social Democrats, but that the party’s bad image is its own fault.
“They have been more or less racking up mistakes and have displayed some rather incredible clumsiness,” he said.
According to an April 4 poll, the Social Democrats erased what several months ago was a rather sizeable lead for what is now Sweden’s biggest party.
