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Sweden resumes talks to find a new prime minister

Sweden's party leaders will meet with the parliamentary speaker for a second round of talks on Tuesday, with the aim of finding a candidate for prime minister who can lead a workable government.

Published: 2 October 2018 07:28 CEST

Sweden resumes talks to find a new prime minister

Parliamentary speaker Andreas Norlén meeting with Social Democrats leader Stefan Löfven last week. Photo: Henrik Montgomery / TT

After the September 9th election left the two main blocs separated by just one seat, arriving at a compromise could be difficult, and the first round of talks last week didn't break the deadlock.

It is the job of newly-elected speaker Andreas Norlén to put forward a proposal for who should become prime minister, but this is only done after talks with the different leaders. On Friday, representatives from the parties appeared to call on Norlén to give one of the eight party leaders the go-ahead to start negotiations on forming a new government.

Both the centre-left bloc and the centre-right Alliance (Moderate Party, Christian Democrats, Centre Party and Liberal Party) believe they should be the one to lead Sweden's next government. If they can't find any common ground, the far-right Sweden Democrats, who are the third largest group, will be influential.

One possible result of Tuesday's talks is that Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson could be asked to try to form a new government, which would force Social Democrat leader Stefan Löfven to talk with the centre-right Alliance.

The Social Democrats' spokesperson has said the right person to lead negotiations is Löfven — who was ousted from his job after losing a confidence vote last week, but continues to lead a caretaker administration.

Another possibility is that the Moderates and Christian Democrats might try to form a government with the support of the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD) but without the Alliance's other two parties, the Centre and the Liberals, which have said they will not work with the SD.

Norlén has four attempts to get parliament to agree to a new prime minister, or at least convince enough MPs to abstain and not actively vote against the candidate.

If they fail to agree on any of the four proposals, a new election must be held within three months. However, this has never happened in Swedish history.

READ ALSO: What's next for Sweden after confidence vote?

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'Very little debate' on consequences of Sweden's crime and migration clampdown

The Liberties Rule of Law report shows Sweden backsliding across more areas than any other of the 19 European Union member states monitored, fuelling concerns that the country risks breaching its international human rights obligations, the report says.

“We’ve seen this regression in other countries for a number of years, such as Poland and Hungary, but now we see it also in countries like Sweden,” says John Stauffer, legal director of the human rights organisation Civil Rights Defenders, which co-authored the Swedish section of the report.

The report, compiled by independent civil liberties groups, examines six common challenges facing European Union member states.

Sweden is shown to be regressing in five of these areas: the justice system, media environment, checks and balances, enabling framework for civil society and systemic human rights issues.

The only area where Sweden has not regressed since 2022 is in its anti-corruption framework, where there has been no movement in either a positive or negative direction.

Source: Liberties Rule of Law report

As politicians scramble to combat an escalation in gang crime, laws are being rushed through with too little consideration for basic rights, according to Civil Rights Defenders.

Stauffer cites Sweden’s new stop-and-search zones as a case in point. From April 25th, police in Sweden can temporarily declare any area a “security zone” if there is deemed to be a risk of shootings or explosive attacks stemming from gang conflicts.

Once an area has received this designation, police will be able to search people and cars in the area without any concrete suspicion.

“This is definitely a piece of legislation where we see that it’s problematic from a human rights perspective,” says Stauffer, adding that it “will result in ethnic profiling and discrimination”.

Civil Rights Defenders sought to prevent the new law and will try to challenge it in the courts once it comes into force, Stauffer tells The Local in an interview for the Sweden in Focus Extra podcast.

He also notes that victims of racial discrimination at the hands of the Swedish authorities had very little chance of getting a fair hearing as actions by the police or judiciary are “not even covered by the Discrimination Act”.

READ ALSO: ‘Civil rights groups in Sweden can fight this government’s repressive proposals’

Stauffer also expresses concerns that an ongoing migration clampdown risks splitting Sweden into a sort of A and B team, where “the government limits access to rights based on your legal basis for being in the country”.

The report says the government’s migration policies take a “divisive ‘us vs them’ approach, which threatens to increase rather than reduce existing social inequalities and exclude certain groups from becoming part of society”.

Proposals such as the introduction of a requirement for civil servants to report undocumented migrants to the authorities would increase societal mistrust and ultimately weaken the rule of law in Sweden, the report says.

The lack of opposition to the kind of surveillance measures that might previously have sparked an outcry is a major concern, says Stauffer.

Politicians’ consistent depiction of Sweden as a country in crisis “affects the public and creates support for these harsh measures”, says Stauffer. “And there is very little talk and debate about the negative consequences.”

Hear John Stauffer from Civil Rights Defender discuss the Liberties Rule of Law report in the The Local’s Sweden in Focus Extra podcast for Membership+ subscribers.

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