Feminist Initiative: Let 16-year-olds vote
Though the Almedalen political week officially ended Sunday, it is continuing with Feminist Initiative party leader Gudrun Schyman delivering her speech from the stage Monday. Their main proposal is to lower the minimum voting age to 16.
Two decades ago the time between elections in Sweden was increased from three to four years, and that has led to the average age of first-time voters to increase to 20, which Schyman thinks is too old. She told newspaper Dagens Nyheter on Sunday that she believes the average should be 18. By lowering the voting age limit to 16, she said that will result in the average first-time voter age changing to 18.
In last fall's election, Feminist Initiative narrowly missed the 4 percent margin to enter Parliament, but they did win seats in the government in Gotland, where Almedalen is held. According to Almedalen rules, every party that sits in the Gotland regional government has the right to headline a day at Almedalen. But after an agreement by the eight parties in Parliament, the Feminist Initiative's day was decided to be outside the official program for the week.
