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Swedish parliament votes in first far-right backed PM in its history

Sweden's parliament has voted in the Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson as Prime Minister, meaning that for the first time, a government is taking power with the formal support of the far right.

Published: 17 October 2022 12:07 CEST
Swedish parliament votes in first far-right backed PM in its history
Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson basks in applause after being voted in as Sweden's new Prime Minister by the country's parliament. Photo: Fredrik Sandberg/TT

Every MP from the four parties backing Kristersson as candidate for prime minister voted for him, meaning he received 176 votes in favour, and 173 against. 

The Moderate leader will outlay his government’s programme in a speech at 9am on Tuesday morning, after which he and the new ministers from the three coalition parties — the Moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberals — will visit King Carl XVI Gustaf to be formally instated as the new government.   

“This feels huge, I am grateful,” Kristersson said at a press conference after the vote. “I’m happy for the confidence I have received from the parliament, and I am humble in the face of the tasks which lie ahead.” 

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The four parties presented a 62-page roadmap for their cooperation on Friday which called for major crackdowns on crime and immigration and the construction of new nuclear reactors, among other things.

At the press conference, Kristersson downplayed the criticisms made of the agreement by several senior Liberal Party politicians, saying that he had never been worried that any of the party’s MPs were going to rebel against the party line and vote against him as a candidate.

“I meet many, many, many more Liberals who are happy,” he said of the deal. He also dismissed calls made by the Liberals in Stockholm for the agreement to be amended. 

In a speech in parliament ahead of the vote, Jimmie Åkesson leader of the far-right Sweden Democrats, argued that the four-party bloc had a mandate from the people to deliver the hardline programme outlined in the Tidö Agreement announced on Friday. 

“It is not we, ourselves, who are giving influence to the parties, it is the voters,” he said. “They spoke and voted for the parties they believe have the best cures to the problems [faced by Sweden]. And it is according to this result, that the parties can impose their policies.”

The Sweden Democrats were the big winner in Sweden’s September 11 general election, emerging as the second-largest party with a record 20.5 percent of votes behind outgoing prime minister Magdalena Andersson’s Social Democrats, which have dominated Swedish politics since the 1930s.

Åkesson in parliament hailed a “new start for Sweden”, saying that the mismanagement of the country by governments of both left and right had been “palpable”, with all citizens suffering the consequences. 

The leaders of the Left, Centre, and Green Parties all levelled harsh criticism at the content of the four-party deal in their speeches, while also attacking the three coalition parties for their decision to form a government with the backing of the Sweden Democrats. 

 
Centre Party leader Annie Lööf said that the deal represented a “paradigm shift” for Sweden, echoing language used by Åkesson on Friday.
 
“Never before has a xenophobic, nationalist party been given the keys to the Government Offices,” she said, condemning the agreement as a “liberal crash-landing”.

“I am grief-stricken that my former Alliance colleagues will now carry out the Sweden Democrats’ party programme,” she said. 

The Social Democrats’ group leader Lena Hallengren warned in her speech that the coming government would “to a large extent be controlled by the Sweden Democrats”. “It will be a weak and brittle government,” she said. 

Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar struck a personal note. 

“My parents fled to Sweden from the Iran of the mullahs,” she said.  They would never have believed that Sweden would go in an authoritarian direction.” 

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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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