Swedes hit the streets to campaign for Obama
The US presidential election is less than two weeks away, and while election fever in the States reaches its climax, interest in the race is also big here in Sweden. News of the various debates has been topping news broadcasts, and some Swedes have even made their way to the USA to help the candidates out. While Romney supporters are due to to travel across the Atlantic next week, some Swedish Obama supporters have already been in the US for a few weeks.
There they have been knocking on doors, canvassing, and encouraging potential Obama voters to register themselves.
Hanna Lindquist is a youth politician from Gothenburg, she says the group of Swedes and Danes started off in Florida: "We are a group of 38, and we started to campaign in Miami, and it was still during the time when they registered voters, so it was pretty important work", she says.
The group have been travelling round the US, helping the Democrat campaign, and have now moved on to New York.
But should they even be there in the first place; should they as Swedes be getting involved in another country's election?
Emil Claesson is a local politician just outside of Stockholm, he says there have been mixed reactions when he has been out canvassing: "Most of the people we meet, they think it's fun and they get excited", he told Radio Sweden, "but I've met another person who didn't really think that it was legal to go around telling people to register to vote. But it is."
Opinion polls in Sweden show that a majority of Swedes would vote for Obama if they could, and almost all the Swedish political parties say they have a stronger affinity with the Democrats than the Republicans, and for Hanna and Emil the choice between the two main candidates is clear.
"This election is so important", Hanna Lindquist says, "McCain was pretty moderate compared to Romney. I just felt that I really really wanted Obama to get re-elected, because even if it has been a struggle for him, I do think he's moved America forward."
Emil Claesson adds; "I'm a progressive back in Sweden, and so are the Democrats. I think that to accomplish the American dream, you need to have progressive politics. You need to give everybody a chance to fulfil their dreams."
While the Swedish Obama supporters have been in the States for weeks, supporters of the Republicans will be making their way over this weekend. Radio Sweden will be talking to one of them next week.
