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Sweden’s Left Party gives government 48 hours to scrap market rent bid or face no-confidence threat

Sweden’s Left Party has given the government a 48-hour deadline to throw out its proposal to abolish a hotly-debated rent cap on newbuilds – or it will try to organise a vote of no-confidence.

Published: 15 June 2021 11:37 CEST
Sweden's Left Party gives government 48 hours to scrap market rent bid or face no-confidence threat
Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar. Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT

Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar told a press conference on Tuesday morning that her party’s attempts to discuss the controversial proposal with Social Democrat Prime Minister Stefan Löfven and the Centre Party had been repeatedly rejected.

She said the Left Party would not back the proposal, which would see market rents introduced for newly built apartments in Sweden. “Our support is not there if the government goes through with proposals on market rents or free rent-setting,” said Dadgostar.

Sweden’s housing market is currently strictly regulated, with municipal and state-regulated rental companies prevented from charging tenants above a certain price level. The proposal to scrap rent caps on newbuilds is part of the so-called January Agreement, in which the Social Democrat-Green government agreed to go forward with some of the Centre and Liberal parties’ policies in exchange for their support.

According to its supporters (mainly on the right), abolishing the cap on newbuilds will create more apartments and shorter housing queues. Its critics (mainly on the left) worry it is the first step towards rolling out market rents for all apartments, and will lead to higher rents.

Dadgostar put two choices to the government on Tuesday: either throw out the proposal completely, or immediately start negotiations with the Swedish Tenants’ Union (Hyresgästföreningen) to improve the proposal.

“If the government does not accept either alternative, we no longer have confidence in Stefan Löfven,” said Dadgostar.

It is unclear how the Left Party would move forward with a no-confidence vote. To hold such a vote at least 35 members of parliament need to sign the motion, but the Left Party only has 27 seats. The conservative Moderates and Christian Democrats (who don’t support the government, but do back market rents) have said they will not sign it.

The Sweden Democrats have said they would be willing to join forces with the Left Party for a no-confidence vote, but the Left has rejected the help of the anti-immigration party. The two parties are on opposite ends of the Swedish political spectrum.

If the Left Party manages to hold a vote, at least 175 of the country’s 349 members of parliament would need to vote in favour for the motion to pass. This means that it would ultimately need the support of the Moderates, Christian Democrats and the Sweden Democrats.

Tune in to The Local’s new podcast, Sweden in Focus, on Saturday, as we discuss this article in more detail.

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WORK PERMITS

Business leaders: Work permit threshold ‘has no place in Swedish labour model’

Sweden's main business group has attacked a proposal to exempt some jobs from a new minimum salary for work permits, saying it is "unacceptable" political interference in the labour model and risks seriously affecting national competitiveness.

Published: 25 April 2024 17:37 CEST
Updated: 26 April 2024 06:11 CEST
Business leaders: Work permit threshold 'has no place in Swedish labour model'

The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise said in its response to the government’s consultation, submitted on Thursday afternoon, that it not only opposed the proposal to raise the minimum salary for a work permit to Sweden’s median salary (currently 34,200 kronor a month), but also opposed plans to exempt some professions from the higher threshold. 

“To place barriers in the way of talent recruitment by bringing in a highly political salary threshold in combination with labour market testing is going to worsen the conditions for Swedish enterprise in both the short and the long term, and risks leading to increased fraud and abuse,” the employer’s group said.   

The group, which represents businesses across most of Sweden’s industries, has been critical of the plans to further raise the salary threshold for work permits from the start, with the organisation’s deputy director general, Karin Johansson, telling The Local this week that more than half of those affected by the higher threshold would be skilled graduate recruits Swedish businesses sorely need.   

But the fact that it has not only rejected the higher salary threshold, but also the proposed system of exemptions, will nonetheless come as a blow to Sweden’s government, and particular the Moderate Party led by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, which has long claimed to be the party of business. 

The confederation complained that the model proposed in the conclusions of the government inquiry published in February would give the government and political parties a powerful new role in setting salary conditions, undermining the country’s treasured system of collective bargaining. 

The proposal for the higher salary threshold, was, the confederation argued, “wrong in principle” and did “not belong in the Swedish labour market”. 

“That the state should decide on the minimum salary for certain foreign employees is an unacceptable interference in the Swedish collective bargaining model, where the parties [unions and employers] weigh up various needs and interested in negotiations,” it wrote. 

In addition, the confederation argued that the proposed system where the Sweden Public Employment Service and the Migration Agency draw up a list of exempted jobs, which would then be vetted by the government, signified the return of the old system of labour market testing which was abolished in 2008.

“The government agency-based labour market testing was scrapped because of it ineffectiveness, and because it was unreasonable that government agencies were given influence over company recruitment,” the confederation wrote. 

“The system meant long handling times, arbitrariness, uncertainty for employers and employees, as well as an indirect union veto,” it added. “Nothing suggests it will work better this time.” 

For a start, it said, the Public Employment Service’s list of professions was inexact and outdated, with only 179 professions listed, compared to 430 monitored by Statistics Sweden. This was particularly the case for new skilled roles within industries like battery manufacturing. 

“New professions or smaller professions are not caught up by the classification system, which among other things is going to make it harder to recruit in sectors which are important for the green industrial transition,” the confederation warned. 

Rather than implement the proposals outlined in the inquiry’s conclusions, it concluded, the government should instead begin work on a new national strategy for international recruitment. 

“Sweden instead needs a national strategy aimed at creating better conditions for Swedish businesses to be able to attract, recruit and retain international competence.”

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