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Sweden’s party leaders meet for group talks in bid to break deadlock

Sweden's parliamentary speaker will today gather most of the country's party leaders together for group talks behind closed doors, in an effort to make progress in building Sweden's next government.

Published: 30 October 2018 07:43 CET
Sweden's party leaders meet for group talks in bid to break deadlock
Parliamentary speaker Andreas Norlén holds a press conference on Monday. Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT

After the September 9th election left neither of the two main blocs with a clear majority and incumbent prime minister Stefan Löfven lost a confidence vote, speaker Andreas Norlén gave the leaders of the two biggest parties two weeks each to try to find support for a workable government. Neither Moderates leader Ulf Kristersson nor Löfven succeeded in the task.

Instead of giving another party the task of trying to build a government, Norlén has chosen to go down another route.

Sweden has never gone this long without a government before, and the speaker will now take a more active role in the task of building one. 

“Now two relatively long exploratory mandates have been carried out for a total of four weeks, without any particular result. The deadlock persists. My assessment therefore is that right now there are no grounds to name a new person,” Norlén explained.


The speaker pictured during talks with many of Sweden's party leaders. Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT

“I want to put a focus on the government alternatives which one or several parties have put at the top of their list, and get a picture for myself of how the party leaders are discussing the different alternatives with each other,” he said.

The talks will begin at 9am with a meeting between Norlén and the leaders of the Social Democrats, Green Party, Moderates, Centre Party, Liberals, and Christian Democrats.

At 10am, the leaders of the Moderates and Christian Democrats will leave the room so that the remaining four parties can discuss the possibility of working in a coalition, and an hour later the Alliance parties (Moderates, Centre Party, Liberals, and Christian Democrats) will talk with the Green Party, before the final talk, involving just the four Alliance parties.

Two parties will not take part in the talks, the Left Party and Sweden Democrats, since no other parties have suggested governing in coalition with them. However, Norlén said he would continue to be in contact with the leaders of these two parties, which could still be decisive in the next government.

It's not essential for a majority in parliament to support a government proposal, but it will fail if a majority vote against it. If they cannot agree, a new election shall be held within three months. However, this has never happened in Swedish history because parliament has always approved the first proposal.

 

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FACT CHECK: Has the EU really banned Swedes from lighting bonfires?

Claims that a new EU law had outlawed lighting fires in private gardens have hit the headlines recently, with outraged Swedes accusing Brussels of banning Sweden's traditional spring fires. But how true are they?

Published: 19 April 2024 10:39 CEST
FACT CHECK: Has the EU really banned Swedes from lighting bonfires?

What’s happened?

On April 6th, TV4 Nyheter published a story claiming that burning twigs and leaves in private gardens has been illegal since the beginning of the year, due to new EU rules.

“A common habit for gardeners during their spring cleaning is now banned. An EU law which came into force at the beginning of the year demands that all food and garden waste are sorted separately,” the article states, quoting Milla Sundström, an administrator from the waste and chemicals unit of the Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket) as saying this “indirectly” bans spring fires.

Sundström added that the ban is enforced by local councils, so rules may differ.

Wait… why is it so important for Swedes to burn twigs in their gardens?

It’s a common way of getting rid of the leaves and branches that have accumulated over the last year, with the ashes often used as fertiliser in the garden. It’s usually only allowed for a couple of weeks a year in spring and again in the autumn, and during Valborg at the end of April, when it’s traditional to light a spring bonfire.

Quite a lot of people in Sweden live in pretty remote areas, so it’s much easier for them to get rid of bulky garden waste by burning it rather than having to drive it off to the nearest recycling centre.

So has burning garden waste been banned by the EU?

Technically, no.

The EU law says that member states should “encourage the recycling, including composting and digestion, of bio-waste”, as well as encourage home composting and promoting the use of materials produced by bio-waste, but it doesn’t say anything about banning fires.

“This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” Center Party MEP Emma Wiesner wrote on X, before blaming the government for interpreting the law incorrectly.

“Banning tidying up in your own garden has clearly NOT been the EU’s intention. The inability of the government and authorities to implement the simplest of directives is embarrassing and adds to the contempt for politicians,” she added.

So who has banned fires on private property?

In a regulation from December 22nd, 2022 signed by Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari, the government writes that exemptions “from the prohibition on the incineration of separately collected waste” may be granted in the case of public events. 

This refers to a separate law governing waste, which states that “waste that has been collected separately to be prepared for reuse or recycling should not be incinerated”.

This regulation came into effect on January 1st, 2024.

Wait… what does that even mean?

Admittedly, the regulation isn’t particularly clear. Having said that, the new rules on bonfires appear to stem from Naturvårdsverket interpreting this regulation as an outright ban.

“The new regulations mean that garden waste must be composted on-site, left at a recycling centre, or collected by the council,” it writes in a post on its website dated April 11th. “In practice, this means that it is no longer permitted to burn branches, leaves and other garden waste”.

Naturvårdsverket claims that this is “part of the introduction of the EU’s waste directive, which means that bio-waste should primarily be recycled”.

It does, however, add that local councils are able to grant exceptions, “for example if it’s a long way to the closest recycling centre”.

So whose fault is it?

Energy and business minister Ebba Busch, who is head of the climate and business ministry, seemed to indicate in a post on X that the confusion was due to the badly-worded rules introduced by the government at the beginning of the year, which were designed to coincide with the EU’s waste directive.

“I want to be clear and say that the government has not introduced a new ban against burning garden waste,” she wrote, alongside a picture of her standing in front of a fire in her own garden.

“There are new rules, but not any huge changes compared to how it’s worked in the past. We can see that these can be interpreted in different ways. For that reason, the rules will be clarified,” she added.

Can I burn twigs in my garden then?

Maybe.

Despite politicians sharing posts telling you to “Keep calm and keep lighting fires,” you should check with your municipality before you do so.

Some, like Halmstad, have interpreted the new regulations as meaning that you can still light a fire in your own garden, while others require you to apply for an exemption (which usually includes paying a fee), whether you’re applying for a May bonfire or just want to burn some leaves in your own garden.

Others, like Värmdö municipality, allow you to burn things like twigs and small branches in your garden, while stating that grass and leaves should be composted.

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