Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

POLITICS

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.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

POLITICS

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

Sweden’s political leaders are putting the population’s well-being at risk by moving the country in a more authoritarian direction, according to a recent report.

Published: 29 April 2024 08:56 CEST
'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.

SHOW COMMENTS