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SWEDEN ELECTS

Sweden Elects: Reactions as parliament set to vote on right-wing government

The Local's editor Emma Löfgren explains the key events to keep an eye on in Swedish politics this week.

Published: 17 October 2022 07:34 CEST
Sweden Elects: Reactions as parliament set to vote on right-wing government
From left, Jimmie Åkesson (Sweden Democrats), Ulf Kristersson (Moderates), Ebba Busch (Christian Democrats) and Johan Pehrson (Liberals). Photo: Jonas Ekströmer/TT

Hej,

Over a month after the Swedish election, Ulf Kristersson managed to strike a coalition deal that will enable his Moderates to form a government together with the Christian Democrats and Liberals (and with the support of the Sweden Democrats, who will not be in government, at least not formally).

Here are the key articles to find out how their 63-page Tidö Agreement affects you:

So what happens next?

Parliament will vote today on whether or not to accept Ulf Kristersson as prime minister. According to the Swedish system for prime ministerial votes, he doesn’t need a majority to vote for him, only a majority not to vote against him, so abstentions effectively count as votes in favour.

That vote is set to take place at 11am today. If Kristersson is accepted, he will address parliament at 9.30am tomorrow to set out the policy for his government in the year ahead, and present his new cabinet.

Then, at 1pm tomorrow he will meet King Carl XVI Gustaf for a so-called skifteskonselj. This is the moment he officially becomes prime minister.

Will Kristersson win the vote in parliament? The margins are pretty slim (176 seats to 173), so if only two rebelling Liberals vote against him, he loses. But it’s more likely that they’ll abstain than vote no – a way to quietly protest without actually going against the party line – and, remember, abstentions are effectively yes votes.

I mention the Liberals because they’re the party that is the most split over their leadership’s pre-election decision to join forces with the right wing, uncomfortable with such close links to the far-right Sweden Democrats.

But it is perhaps more likely that individual Liberal MPs will vote no to any future legislation they don’t like, rather than opposing the formation of this government.

The fact that they managed to get a government portfolio (the new cabinet hasn’t been announced yet, but Liberal party leader Johan Pehrson is understood to have his eyes set on education) is seen by many within the party as enough of a victory that they can live with some of the issues they had to concede ground on.

Most of the criticism has come from Liberals who aren’t in parliament.

“Nobody could call these proposals liberal policy. But it’s the price you pay if you want to be in government with a very large nationalist party,” Jan Jönsson, a Liberal councillor in Stockholm, told Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, calling the deal “worse than expected”.

“If so, he’s only read half of it. You have to read the whole [document],” Pehrson told Dagens Nyheter in response to the criticism. “You have to give and take. So that’s an unfair description, but of course [the agreement] is both sweet and salty.”

Barbro Westerholm, a party elder who didn’t stand for re-election in this election, told Aftonbladet she was considering leaving the party. “I was naïve enough to think SD wouldn’t get so much influence,” she said.

Whatever happens, it looks like the next four years under Kristersson are going to be just as politically wobbly as the centre-left’s previous eight years with Magdalena Andersson and Stefan Löfven.

The wings of history

The details of the new government agreement were hashed out at Tidö Slott, one of the best preserved palaces from the Swedish Empire.

The palace was built by Axel Oxenstierna in 1625-1641. Oxenstierna was perhaps one of the most influential statesmen in Swedish history, serving as Lord High Chancellor of Sweden from 1612 until his death.

Oxenstierna is to thank or blame for the creation of the modern Swedish decentralisation of power, where much of the day-to-day administrative power is held by the regions, not by the state.

Did you know?

Sweden isn’t historically a country where it takes a long time to form a government. This is now its second longest period of post-election negotiations in modern times.

The top spot obviously goes to the infamous 134 days after the 2018 election, and the third longest was in 1979 (which I got from Aftonbladet), when it took 26 days to get a new government.

It crumbled a year and a half later in a row over tax reform.

Sweden Elects is a weekly column by Editor Emma Löfgren looking at the big talking points and issues after the Swedish election. Members of The Local Sweden can sign up to receive the column as a newsletter in their email inbox each week. Just click on this “newsletters” option or visit the menu bar.

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CLIMATE

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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