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Aza Cheragwandi, Chairman of the Alliance of Young Republicans wrote yesterday:
Down with the monarchy - Victoria for president
Let the crown princess deserve our votes - like all other candidates for the job as head of state
Essentially a monarchy in all its forms is against democratic development and maintains the country in a democratic gray area. We want to abolish hereditary monarchy in Sweden, and in the process we often encounter people who criticize that they really like Crown Princess Victoria and are happy to see her become the Head of State.
To them we say: Absolutely, but Victoria for President!
According Novus survey from April 2016 around 40 % of Swedes would like Crown Princess Victoria to take over as head of state in advance, ie the king to abdicate and let her take over. She and Prince Daniel have enjoyed a great popularity in recent years when the Swedish people, after several scandals of the king, have wanted to see a change in the royal family.
We also see that support for the monarchy has fallen steadily since 1995, which may be one explanation why the Swedish people have decided to look elsewhere for leadership.
Sweden's head of state is our country's highest political office, and such a representative responsibility demands that we all have the opportunity to jointly choose who will be the head of state. We must also have the opportunity to replace the person if we are dissatisfied.
We fully understand that many Swedes see the Crown Princess as a good role model and as a strong leader, a society is strong when its citizens express themselves politically.
However, it is a strange argument that we all should be deprived of the right to vote and choose leaders only because a person is well-liked. In a modern democracy, there should be more candidates, and these people must fight for our votes. This must apply to all our positions, including the head of state. However, different rules seem to apply, according to some.
If I would go out and say that we should cancel the general elections in 2018 because I really like the government with Stefan Löfven as Prime Minister, people would queue to call me as a dictatorship advocate, but for some reason we do not see the election of our head of state the same way.
A republic may appear in several different ways. For those who like the crown princess and want to see her become the head of state, the way is to go to declare presidential election in which, among others, Crown Princess Victoria can stand as a candidate and earn our votes - like all other candidates.
For us, Young Republicans, the choice is easy, there can be no compromise. There is no half-democracy, either we have democracy or we have not.
As long as a hereditary monarchy stays in Sweden and as long as everyone else in Sweden doesn’t have the opportunity to be elected to our country's highest office, we are not a democracy.
Want to see Crown Princess Victoria to become the head of state in Sweden? Great!
Vote then for Victoria for President.
Aza Cheragwandi, Chairman of the Alliance, Young Republicans
Ner med monarkin – Victoria for president _ Aftonbladet