Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

POLITICS

Magdalena Andersson becomes Sweden’s first female prime minister

Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson will become Sweden's new prime minister, after parliament voted to confirm her on Wednesday morning. But she'll face her first big challenge in only a few hours.

Published: 24 November 2021 10:03 CET
Magdalena Andersson becomes Sweden's first female prime minister
Magdalena Andersson on her way to the vote in parliament. Photo: Jessica Gow/TT

The abstentions of the Centre Party and Left Party, and support of the Green Party and her own Social Democrats, brought Andersson to the the magic 174 mandates – exactly the same as the number of right-wing members of parliament who voted no.

But as under Sweden’s system a prime ministerial candidate does not need the support of a majority in parliament, as long as the majority does not actively vote against them, this meant that Andersson’s bid was successful with a razor-thin margin.

One member of parliament was not present in the chamber and did not vote.

Andersson is now set to formally take over the prime ministerial reins from Stefan Löfven following a meeting with King Carl XVI Gustaf on Friday, giving her nine months to prepare for Sweden’s 2022 general election. But her first challenge will come much sooner than that.

The Swedish parliament is set to vote on the budget for next year at 4pm today. Centre Party leader Annie Lööf said on Wednesday morning that her party would not back the government proposal, which means that the proposal does not enjoy enough support to be voted through.

This in turn means that the right-wing’s opposition budget – negotiated jointly by the conservative Moderates and Christian Democrats and the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats – is likely to pass, meaning Andersson may have to govern on that budget.

It will be the first time Sweden is run on a budget negotiated by a far-right party.

Before announcing his departure as prime minister and leader of the Social Democrats, Löfven had already threatened to resign if the opposition’s budget passed, but now-outgoing Finance Minister Andersson has so far not made such a commitment.

Gender-equal Sweden has never before had a woman as prime minister. Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland have all seen women lead their governments.

Andersson has previously outlined three political priorities going forward.

After being confirmed as the Social Democrats’ new leader, she said she wanted to “take back democratic control of schools, healthcare and elderly care”, and move away from welfare sector privatisation.

She also said she aimed to make Sweden a worldwide role model in climate transition.

And she vowed to end segregation, as well as the shootings and bombings that have plagued the country in recent years – usually due to gangs settling scores or battling over the drug market – mainly affecting disadvantaged neighbourhoods with large immigrant populations.

Member comments

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

WORK PERMITS

Business leaders: Work permit threshold ‘has no place in Swedish labour model’

Sweden's main business group has attacked a proposal to exempt some jobs from a new minimum salary for work permits, saying it is "unacceptable" political interference in the labour model and risks seriously affecting national competitiveness.

Published: 25 April 2024 17:37 CEST
Updated: 26 April 2024 06:11 CEST
Business leaders: Work permit threshold 'has no place in Swedish labour model'

The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise said in its response to the government’s consultation, submitted on Thursday afternoon, that it not only opposed the proposal to raise the minimum salary for a work permit to Sweden’s median salary (currently 34,200 kronor a month), but also opposed plans to exempt some professions from the higher threshold. 

“To place barriers in the way of talent recruitment by bringing in a highly political salary threshold in combination with labour market testing is going to worsen the conditions for Swedish enterprise in both the short and the long term, and risks leading to increased fraud and abuse,” the employer’s group said.   

The group, which represents businesses across most of Sweden’s industries, has been critical of the plans to further raise the salary threshold for work permits from the start, with the organisation’s deputy director general, Karin Johansson, telling The Local this week that more than half of those affected by the higher threshold would be skilled graduate recruits Swedish businesses sorely need.   

But the fact that it has not only rejected the higher salary threshold, but also the proposed system of exemptions, will nonetheless come as a blow to Sweden’s government, and particular the Moderate Party led by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, which has long claimed to be the party of business. 

The confederation complained that the model proposed in the conclusions of the government inquiry published in February would give the government and political parties a powerful new role in setting salary conditions, undermining the country’s treasured system of collective bargaining. 

The proposal for the higher salary threshold, was, the confederation argued, “wrong in principle” and did “not belong in the Swedish labour market”. 

“That the state should decide on the minimum salary for certain foreign employees is an unacceptable interference in the Swedish collective bargaining model, where the parties [unions and employers] weigh up various needs and interested in negotiations,” it wrote. 

In addition, the confederation argued that the proposed system where the Sweden Public Employment Service and the Migration Agency draw up a list of exempted jobs, which would then be vetted by the government, signified the return of the old system of labour market testing which was abolished in 2008.

“The government agency-based labour market testing was scrapped because of it ineffectiveness, and because it was unreasonable that government agencies were given influence over company recruitment,” the confederation wrote. 

“The system meant long handling times, arbitrariness, uncertainty for employers and employees, as well as an indirect union veto,” it added. “Nothing suggests it will work better this time.” 

For a start, it said, the Public Employment Service’s list of professions was inexact and outdated, with only 179 professions listed, compared to 430 monitored by Statistics Sweden. This was particularly the case for new skilled roles within industries like battery manufacturing. 

“New professions or smaller professions are not caught up by the classification system, which among other things is going to make it harder to recruit in sectors which are important for the green industrial transition,” the confederation warned. 

Rather than implement the proposals outlined in the inquiry’s conclusions, it concluded, the government should instead begin work on a new national strategy for international recruitment. 

“Sweden instead needs a national strategy aimed at creating better conditions for Swedish businesses to be able to attract, recruit and retain international competence.”

SHOW COMMENTS