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Swedish opposition leader Ulf Kristersson tasked with trying to form a government

Parliamentary speaker Andreas Norlén has given Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson the task of trying to form a government, after centre-left Prime Minister Stefan Löfven resigned on Monday following a no-confidence vote.

Published: 29 June 2021 16:57 CEST
Swedish opposition leader Ulf Kristersson tasked with trying to form a government
Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson on his way to talks with the speaker earlier on Tuesday. Photo: Claudio Bresciani/TT

Kristersson, whose party falls on the right of the political spectrum, has been named as sonderingsperson.This means he has the task of speaking to other party leaders to see if he is able to get enough support for a government, either through forming a coalition or by opposition parties agreeing to tolerate, or not vote against, the proposed government.

Norlén said he would give Kristersson three days for this task, reporting back to the speaker on Friday, but at this stage it would be possible to request an extension if needed.

Asked why he chose the Moderate leader, the speaker said: “He is the leader of the largest party in the group which voted against Stefan Löfven. It is reasonable that he gets a chance to see which opportunities he has to form a government.” 

He added: “There were more [party leaders] who pointed to Kristersson than to any other form of government. I thought this was a good reason for making the decision.”

Norlén emphasised his aim of keeping the process as swift as possible, saying that he plans to have one vote on a prime ministerial candidate every week until the process is completed.

Only four such votes can take place before a snap election can be called, which means that by the end of July, Sweden should either have a new government in place or have announced a snap election if this timetable is kept to. This is a far cry from the four-month process of talks between the parties and the speaker that took place after the September 2018 election before a new government could be formed.

The seats in parliament are divided the same way they were after that election, but the political landscape has changed nonetheless.

The Liberal Party, which along with the Centre Party agreed to support Löfven’s government in exchange for some policy influence, have now switched sides and said they will pursue a right-wing government led by Kristersson. And the reason the vote of no confidence against Löfven was passed was because the Left Party said it could not support one of the proposals pushed through by the Centre Party. 

Even with the support of the Liberals along with the Christian Democrats and far-right Sweden Democrats, the Moderates would be one vote short of obtaining a parliamentary majority, leaving them to rely on votes from MPs in the Centre Party, whose leader has ruled out supporting a government that relies on the Sweden Democrats.

If Kristersson is not successful in forming a government backed by a majority of parliamentarians, another round of talks with the speaker will begin and Norlén will name a new sonderingsperson.

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POLITICS

Swedish PM won’t end Sweden Democrats collaboration over ‘troll factory’

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has no plans to break off the government's collaboration with the Sweden Democrats, he told a press conference, after an undercover investigation revealed that the party had been running a so-called "troll factory".

Published: 22 May 2024 17:24 CEST
Swedish PM won't end Sweden Democrats collaboration over 'troll factory'

During a press conference following a party leader debate in parliament, Kristersson, from the Moderates, was asked whether he, as prime minister, would put any pressure on the Sweden Democrats to stop using the anonymous accounts, which had been used to spread content of benefit to the party and degrade its political opponents.

He replied saying that he cannot make demands or take responsibility for the actions of the Sweden Democrats’ communications department.

“If your real question is: ‘Do you want to stop working together to solve Sweden’s major problems because I have strong objections to smear campaigns in Swedish politics’, then the answer is no,” he said.

He did, however, say that he had discussed the issue with Åkesson both in public and in private.

“[I’ve told him] that I dislike smear campaigns, that they need to answer legitimate questions put to them by the media, political opponents and coalition partners. And that I dislike anonymous accounts.”

He added that the Sweden Democrats should “moderate their tone”.

The Sweden Democrats had not only been using the accounts to smear opposition parties, but also the governing coalition of the Liberals, Moderates and Christian Democrats, which the party provides its support to under the Tidö Agreement, named after the castle where it was drawn up.

The Tidö Agreement includes a clause requiring all four parties to “speak respectfully” about each other.

In one clip from the Kalla Fakta documentary revealing the existence of the troll factory, Sweden Democrat communications head Joakim Wallerstein tells the group of troll factory workers to “find shit” on the Christian Democrats’ top candidate for the EU parliament, Alice Teodorescu Måwe, while others make fun of Liberal leader Johan Pehrson.

In another, one of the employees in the troll factory discusses what type of music to use when he should “shit on” the Moderates.

Anti-racism magazine Expo also reported that the Sweden Democrats had used their anonymous accounts to share white power material.

Since Kalla Fakta’s documentary was released, Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson has responded by claiming that Swedish media are carrying out their own campaign against his party, calling the documentary part of a “domestic smear campaign from the left-liberal establishment”.

LISTEN: Uncovering a Sweden Democrat troll factory

Kristersson did not wish to comment on Åkesson’s response, but he disagreed that Swedish media and political parties are carrying out a smear or influence campaign.

“I definitely perceive influence operations from other countries, and we often feed back to you [the media] and tell you what we know about those things. I obviously do not perceive any influence operations from parties, media or anyone else in Sweden.”

As far as Åkesson’s claims that Kalla Fakta had “infiltrated” the Sweden Democrats, Kristersson said that it would be “completely foreign to me to interfere with how free media operate in a free democracy”.

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