Link to the video(in Swedish)

Interview

Göran Person:

It was a great day. It was May the second 1998.

Narrator:

The German Mark will become the Euro. The leaders of the EU meet for their historical decision about the monetary union. But nothing is done until everything is done!

Göran Person:

We gathered, as one always does, before lunch. We were standing around talking, I think we were supposed to start at 1pm, with lunch, but it was getting late for that. It was under the British presidency, Blair was not seen, Kohl was not seen, Chirac and Jospin were not seen, Wim Kok was not seen. So one understood that something was going on, something was happening. Around 2pm, there is some noise, banging with doors, and then Kohl enters the room. And the good Kohl is completely, incredibly, upset. He is torn up. He is gesticulating, and he is black around the eyes. And when he enters the room, he yells: "Here you see the monkey in Europe! I don't want to be the monkey in Europe! The one that everyone laughs at!" It was the crisis around appointing this Duisenberg, as the new president of the Central European Bank, the French were blocking, but the Germans thought it would be worked out. And it was the Germans who would be in trouble if it didn't, because it was the Germans who had an election coming, and this is Kohl's project, it can't fail. So, Kohl is very upset when he enters. He sits down. And then he starts to, like,... eat... butter. And he eats copious quantities of butter. At first one saucer, and I think it was about 10 of those packaged butter pieces, 10g apiece which lie there, consumed quickly. And then he brings in another saucer, and also those are eaten. And then he starts to calm down. And we are still waiting for Blair, Jospin and Chirac, and Wim Kok. And then they too arrive. And some kind of deal has been made, the kind of deal in which Kohl has gone too far. He has agreed to a deal between France and the Netherlands which Germany cannot accept. "What will he think of me now? The man on the street, who trusted me, what will he think, and it's over now, I will never manage, that it should end like this". Kohl is not so dumb, as a political animal, that he didn't get that his election is now blown. And he is sitting and telling us this, and his interpreter, I remember, the woman who was always with him, she was sobbing while translating. And then we moved down for forms sake, sometime in the night, to take this decision, to start the EMU. And everything dissolved into total chaos, and a bad mood, and an enormous crisis, if anything else is really the beginning of the EMU.

Narrator:

They were born the same year, both received an early political education, the one an aristocrat, the other from a home almost entirely without books. Carl Bildt, a ghost for Göran Persson, is gone from Swedish politic while brokering peace in the former Yugoslavia. It gives him international star power at home, and status as an icon in his own party. A difficult opponent for Göran Persson in the 1998 elections.

Cut to October 1997, speech in the parliament

Carl Bildt:

It was quite a while ago that I had the opportunity to speak from this podium. Other missions have, as well known, for a couple of years removed me from Sweden, and to the problems of Europe, which have been, and still are, of a different order, than what we face in our discussions in this chamber. But is was always clear to me...

Cut to interview

Göran Person:

I noticed that he was uncertain, going up to the podium. And this is not unimportant as a signal, to me. That one notices quickly when one has socialised. It becomes a bit loose, and a bit unnecessarily stressed voice, and things like that.

Interviewer:

So that pleases your black heart [dark side] then?

Göran Persson:

Naeyah, but I know how much it matters, for the bit of politics that this represents, to have the initiative.

Cut to a TV debate before the 1998 elections

Carl Bildt:

I just want to say to you, Göran, I think I have worked more than you with people in difficult situations, that I have . (Göran is seen shaking his head)

Carl Bildt:

I don't think you really know the depth of despair that can afflict. And when I have worked with people like that, also in other countries, It is all about giving a job, to give dignity, to give opportunities to develop.

Göran Person:

Please tell me, Carl Bildt, about the fine, wide world. Please tell me about large investments in IT, and new airplanes. But don't tell me about social class in Sweden. I have seen it, I have grown up in it, and I hate it. My entire political legacy will be to fight class inequality, where single mothers end up paying for lower taxes of those better off, that I can tell you.

October 1998, after the election where the Social Democrats lost support.

Narrator :

Even a looser can continue to govern. Now the greens and the Left party join a coalition [with Göran Person's Social Democrats], like the Centre Party in the past. The Moderats and Carl Bildt take several weeks to engage in a counter offencive, and they are too late. The majority for Persson in the parliament is secured.

Cut to The Swedish parliament, October 1998

Birgitta Dahl, speaker of the parliament:

The meeting of the parliament is opened. A vote of no confidence on the prime minister, Göran Person.

Carl Bildt:

The election, on September 20, was a larger setback for the governing party than what any other governing party in the modern history of Sweden has ever experienced.

Birgitta Dahl:

The vote has been taken, with 82 yes, 186 no, and 74 abstentions. [Applause]

Cut to interview

Göran Person:

Another thing is, that I have benefited from Bildt being so fucking bad. And obviously I wonder where that guy is going to go, I wonder what he is going to do. A bit sad. I feel sorry for him, I think there is a feeling of sorrow, when one meets him. One can think about ones own case, we are the same age, and he sees in front of himself a situation where he doesn't return as prime minister, he sees that in front of himself. At the same time, life goes on, this wasn't what he had expected, to sit there and quarrel with Bo Lundgren [who will soon thereafter take over as party leader for the Moderats] and [Gunnar] Hökmark[party secretary of the Moderats, 1991-2000], and the gang. That's difficult for him.