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Sweden’s Stefan Löfven given chance to form a government after opposition leader abandons bid

Stefan Löfven, who resigned as Swedish prime minister on Monday, has been tasked with trying to form a new government after opposition rival Ulf Kristersson, announced on Thursday that his own attempt had been unsuccessful.

Published: 1 July 2021 13:42 CEST
Sweden's Stefan Löfven given chance to form a government after opposition leader abandons bid
After resigning from his post on Monday, Social Democrat Stefan Löfven now has a second chance to form a government. Photo: Claudio Bresciani/TT

Writing on his social media accounts, Löfven said: “My message is still that the Social Democrats and I are ready to shoulder the responsibility to lead the country forward, together with other constructive forces.” 

After losing a vote of no confidence on June 21st, centre-left Prime Minister Stefan Löfven declared that he would be resigning on Monday morning. This triggered rounds of talks between party leaders and the parliamentary speaker, Andreas Norlén, who has the role of assessing what a government backed by the majority of parliament would look like, and proposing potential PM candidates.

A day later, the leader of the right-wing Moderates, Ulf Kristersson was commissioned by the speaker be the first party leader to test the conditions for forming a new government. He had until Friday to try, but gave notice a day early that he’s giving up. 

“The parliamentary conditions for forming a right-of-centre government simply do not exist,” Kristersson said at a press conference on Thursday morning. “We conclude that there are 175 seats which will vote no.”

A candidate passes a prime ministerial vote by having no more than 175 votes against them (abstentions therefore effectively count as votes in favour) and the margins in parliament are currently wafer-thin. 

The right-wing bloc is made up of the Moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberal Party, which together count 111 seats, rising to 173 with the support of the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats.

The vote for Sweden’s next prime minister will be close and could be decided by a margin of one vote. 

Kristersson said that he announced his withdrawal from the process early so as not to delay the process of getting a new government in place, after concluding that a new government formed by him would not pass the vote.

“I think it was my duty to go back to the speaker and say that there is some agreement on policy stances but we do not have the mathematics,” Kristersson said.

Now the Speaker has given the task to form a government to Stefan Löfven, who just lost a vote of no confidence. 

He has been given a probationary period that runs until Monday, with the possibility of an extension if needed. This means that a vote on his candidacy as prime minister could be held on Wednesday at the earliest.

If four consecutive proposed candidates are unsuccessful, snap elections must be called. 

Norlén has said that he hopes to finish the process by the end of July, by holding one vote each week until either a government is voted in or all four chances are used.

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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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