Sweden says NO to EMU
 

Voting stoped officially at 20:00 (CET)

No 56.2%
Yes 41.8%
Blank 2.1%

Participation 81.2%

As this is posted 1 counting post out of 5976 has yet
to report in.

I'd have to agree with them.

hmm i thought it would be closer..
I thought Sweden was already part of the EU, is it just because they joined in early that they get to decide not to take the Euro?

I thought the vote would be closer as well...

I'm no expert on the subject but I feel Sweden did the right thing.
The Euro has in most countries driven prices up as much as 30-100% for common luxury goods (cafe's restaurants and such) and 10-50% on regular goods. Sweden's economy and employment rate has been steady above the average 'Euro'-country.
Ever since the EU started taking shape and introducing the Euro there has been nothing but trouble. Each country feels cheated, and some large countries are not keeping up their end of the deal to stabilize the Euro (to keep it from devaluating, though it has not done this, yet).

In the long run if all goes well for Europe, Sweden may miss out on some economic growth and oppertunities. But in the short-term it saves them a lot of political BS.

(and many former Iron-curtain states are in the process of joining the EU which makes the Euro future much less secure)

The Euro has not yet proven to be very good for the average consumer, and has increased political debate about issues no normal citizen is interested in. Descisions are not being made and if they are, many parties do not agree. I do not blame the swedish at all for voting against the Euro.
(I would.)

The final scores were:

No: 56,1%
Yes: 41,8%
Blank: 2,1%

Participation: 81,2%

All 5976 voting posts had reported in at 23:41 (CET).

I personaly think this is pretty fucked up.

I'm honestly conserned about the nationalist tendecies that our people has shown in this election, most people I know has voted no but have no better reasons than that we would have to pull the other countries economicly.

Almost the only argument against the euro that isn't emotional is that we would loose the control over our intrest rate. Today the ruling party has used it to increase wages through the unions and the deflate the value of the krona, while common people see that they have might have 10% more pay than five years ago most of them have no idea that what they have isn't worth as much as it used to be.

Also I guess this could be a nail in the coffin for the Sweden-Europe - Europe/Sweden cooperation. Who will listen to the country that undermines the common efforts.

I think I'll go check if I can get political asylum in Germany.

(I'm not bitter, just disappointed)

This is a shame. I think the economic arguements both for and against ammount to very little, but the political arguement...
Its a shame that nationalism is still such a force despite all the horrors that typically go with it.
Still im optimistic that Sweden will join the EMU at some time in the future.

81% participation is very impressive though!

My belif is that most of the no-voters voted no because they simply feel they know too little about it and the knowledge we have (Germany's economic troubles for example) puts it in a negative perspective. Yes I am aware that Finland is doing, at least from what I've heard, just fine with the euro but it still doesn't outwheight the bad things recently reported in media.
Hopefully we will know more by 2015 when we get another chance to join the EMU, and with that knowledge take the "once and for all"-decision about Swedens participation in EMU.

Yeah, but by then our political credability and influence in the EU will be seriously damaged which is probably one of the goals of the swedish left as a reason to get us out of the entire union.

It just feels sad(but not surprising) to see the country that I have lived my entire life in back of from a project that could very well be the political milestone of our generation. And by that I mean a potential superpower built not on it's military force but by focusing on economical growth and flexibility.

...and your interest rates will be anyways controlled by the EU, indirectly.

Participation: 81,2%... Wow.

Nothing like voter turnout... Puts other so-called democracies to shame.