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Magdalena Andersson nominated as Sweden’s new prime minister

Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson will face her first big test on Wednesday, when parliament will vote on whether or not to confirm her as Sweden's first female prime minister.

Published: 22 November 2021 13:42 CET
Updated: 22 November 2021 16:06 CET
Magdalena Andersson nominated as Sweden's new prime minister
Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson, left, and speaker of parliament Andreas Norlén, on Monday. Photo: Jonas Ekströmer/TT

Andersson’s deadline to secure a deal with parliamentary parties to enable her to become Sweden’s new prime minister ran out at noon on Monday. After ten days of negotiations with the Left Party, she has yet to reach an agreement, meaning that she has not yet secured enough votes for her prime minister bid to be secure.

After reporting the results of negotiations to parliamentary speaker Andreas Norlén, he announced that he will nominate her to be Sweden’s new prime minister, meaning that parliament will decide whether to approve or reject her nomination on Wednesday. Andersson had not requested more time to negotiate.

The vote will be held at 9am on Wednesday.

The government’s new budget will also be approved or denied in a separate vote later on Wednesday afternoon.

Under Sweden’s system of negative parliamentarianism, a prime ministerial candidate needs only to convince a majority of members of parliament not to vote against them in order to take power. But with the slim margins in the Swedish parliament, that is not actually a safe guarantee.

Andersson needs to win the votes or abstentions of both the Centre Party’s 31 MPs and the Left Party’s 28 MPs. Together with the government coalition parties’ 100 Social Democrat MPs and 16 Green Party MPs, this would bring her to the magic majority of 175 mandates (the right-wing parties have 174). She has already reached an agreement with the Centre Party.

Norlén said in the press conference that he has chosen to nominate Andersson despite her not securing an agreement with the Left Party, stating that “there is time before the vote to complete negotiations”.

If the Left Party and the Social Democrats do not reach an agreement by Wednesday, Andersson risks losing the prime minister vote in parliament – meaning that Norlén may try and find another candidate for the position, or that Andersson may have to restart negotiations.

The speaker has four chances to nominate a prime minister – if all of these fail, then there will be a new election.

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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.

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