This Will Cost Them Dear / Això els costarà molt

Although the Swedish blogosphere won a victory in drawing public attention to the government's ("the Alliance's") proposal to allow scanning of digital communication, it is becoming clearer and clearer that the revised version, which has already been adopted, cannot guarantee the private integrity of web-users.



"By introducing these new measures, the Swedish government is following the examples set by governments ranging from China and Saudi Arabia to the US government's highly criticised eavesdropping programme," is how Peter Fleischer of Google commented the decision, according to the BBC. Not the preferred company of a country where many citizens still see the EU as a threat to democracy.

Camilla Lindberg, the only member of allegedly liberal Folkpartiet who decided to vote no, has possibly created some difficulties for herself in the party hierarchy, but is being hailed as one of few ideologically steadfast politicians. Fredrik Federley, who calls himself a liberal and was firmly against interception before the voting rounds but then voted yes to the revised proposal in order not to clash with his party (Centerpartiet), is being heavily criticised by bloggers and there is even a song about how he betrayed his ideals.

The main opposition party, the Social Democrats, takes big pride in having voted no, thus in line with public opinion. As so often in politics, they seem to forget that the initiative to the bill which the right wing government has now voted through, originally came from them.

The events of this week will have a strong influence of the future of Swedish politics. Johan Ingerö, a popular liberal blogger has created the Facebook group “Alliance voters against the alliance” (I cannot link to it since I am not a member of the Sweden network). It is worth remembering that all youth organisations of the four government parties were against the bill which is now about to be implemented. That difference between the generations will not go unnoticed in the interal debate of the Alliance parties.
- - -

La blogosfera sueca va demostar la seva força en retardar la llei sobre mesures anti-terroristes que va fer el govern de dreta ("l’Aliança"), però ara és cada cop més clar que la nova versió tampoc pot assegurar l’integritat privada dels usuaris de la xarxa. En fet, un director de Google va dir que 'Suecia ha seguit el mateix camí com per exemple Xina i Aràbia Saudita' – quines referencies més vergonyoses.

Al final no va haver més que un sol soci d’el govern, la Camilla Lindberg, que va votar en contra de la proposta i per tant rep elogis de molts blocaires. El contrari li està passant al Fredrik Federley, que s’havia creat un perfil com convençut liberal i polític honest, però al final va votar sí per no arriscar la seva carrera política. En una canció a YouTube es canta sobra la seva traïcíó dels ideals.

Unes coses de la política funcionen com sempre, com ara el fet que els socialdemocrats són feliços per haver votat segons l’opinió pública i obliden còmodament que la proposta original de la nova llei es va plantejar quan governaven ells.

Tanmateix es poden esperar grans canvis. Els blocaires se van adonar de l’influencia que tenen i totes les agrupacions de joves dels partits de dreta són contra la proposta que està a punt d'implementar-se. A Facebook ja es va crear el grup “Votants de l’Aliança contra l’Aliança” (no puc fer-hi un enllaç, ja que no sóc del grup Sweden). Sembla que el primer ministre suec va guanyar una vertadera victoria Pírrica.