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SWEDEN ELECTS

What’s next in Swedish politics: Key dates to keep an eye on in 2023

Everything from EU summits to budget bills – here are the key political dates to put in your diary in Sweden this year.

Published: 2 January 2023 07:53 CET
a man writing in a calendar
Make sure you don't miss these political events in Sweden. Photo: Christine Olsson/TT

January 1st: Sweden to assume the EU presidency, a task that rotates among the member states every six months. Here’s a list of the top priorities for the next six months with Sweden at the helm.

January 8th-10th: The annual Folk och Försvar (“Society and Defence”) conference to be held at the Sälen ski resort. Expected to attend are as usual some of the top names in the world of security and defence, including Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto and Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

January 12th-13th: The EU Commission to visit Sweden.

January 17th: Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson to present Sweden’s presidency at the EU Parliament in Strasbourg. On the same day, Sweden will chair a meeting of the EU’s finance ministers in Brussels.

January 18th: Party leader debate in the Swedish parliament, the first one of 2023.

January 25th-27th: Informal meeting of the EU’s justice, home affairs and migration ministers in Stockholm.

February 2nd-4th: The Centre Party to hold an extraordinary conference in Helsingborg to elect a new party leader, who will succeed Annie Lööf.

February 9th: The Swedish Central Bank to announce its latest decision on the interest rate, whether to leave it unchanged, raise it or lower it.

February 9th-10th: Summit of the EU’s heads of state and government in Brussels. On the same dates, the EU’s foreign aid ministers will have an informal meeting in Stockholm.

February 15th: The Swedish parliament to debate foreign policy.

February 21st-22nd: Informal meeting of the EU’s energy and transport ministers in Stockholm.

March 1st-2nd: Informal meeting of the EU’s defence ministers in Stockholm.

March 2nd-3rd: Informal meeting of the EU’s foreign affairs ministers in Stockholm.

March 9th-10th: Informal meeting of the EU’s trade ministers in Stockholm.

March 17th-19th: The Liberals’ party conference in Linköping.

March 21st: The deadline for submitting spring bills to parliament before the summer.

March 23rd-24th: Summit of the EU’s heads of state and government in Brussels.

March 24th-25th: The Moderates’ party conference in Karlstad.

April 14th-15th: The Christian Democrats’ party conference in Örebro.

April 17th: The government to present its spring budget bill.

April 18th-19th: Informal meeting of the EU’s climate ministers in Stockholm.

April 26th: The Central Bank to announce its latest decision on the interest rate.

April 28th-29th: Informal meeting of the EU’s finance ministers and central bank bosses in Stockholm.

May 4th-5th: Informal meeting of the EU’s ministers of employment and health in Stockholm.

May 31st-June 3rd: Järva Week, the annual political festival in Stockholm’s northern suburbs.

June 6th: The national day of Sweden and 500 years since Gustav Vasa was elected King of Sweden.

June 11th-13th: Informal meeting of the EU’s agriculture and fishery ministers in Stockholm.

June 14th: Party leader debate in parliament.

June 21st: The last day of parliament before the summer recess.

June 22nd: Informal meeting of EU ministers in Stockholm.

June 27th-July 1st: Sweden’s annual political festival Almedalen Week in Visby.

June 29th-30th: Summit of the EU’s heads of state and government in Brussels.

June 29th: The Central Bank to announce its latest decision on the interest rate.

July 1st: Spain takes over the EU presidency from Sweden.

July 11th-12th: Nato summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.

July 31st: The deadline for an ongoing inquiry into potentially introducing labour market testing for work permits.

September 1st: A reform of Sweden’s system of coordination numbers to come into force. Click here to read more about it in The Local’s article.

September 12th: Parliament reopens after the summer recess.

September 15th: 50 years since Carl XVI Gustaf became King of Sweden.

September 20th: The government to present its budget bill.

September 23rd: The Central Bank to announce its latest decision on the interest rate.

September 28th-October 1st: The Centre Party’s conference in Örebro.

October 18th: Party leader debate in parliament.

October 19th-22nd: The Moderates’ party conference in Umeå

October 26th-27th: Summit of the EU’s heads of state and government in Brussels.

November 10th-12nd: The Christian Democrats’ party conference in Helsingborg.

November 15th: The Swedish parliament to debate EU politics.

November 17th-19th: The Green Party’s conference in Örebro. The Liberals will hold their party conference in Linköping on the same dates.

November 23rd: The Central Bank to announce its latest decision on the interest rate.

November 23rd-26th: The Sweden Democrats’ party conference. Location to be announced.

December 14th-15th: Summit of the EU’s heads of state and government in Brussels.

The dates above are based on information provided by Swedish news agency TT, with a couple of extra dates that readers of The Local may be particularly interested in.

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For members

INSIDE SWEDEN

Inside Sweden: Why troll factory won’t spark a government crisis

The Local's editor Emma Löfgren rounds up the biggest stories of the week in our Inside Sweden newsletter.

Published: 18 May 2024 09:22 CEST
Inside Sweden: Why troll factory won't spark a government crisis

Hej,

News that the Sweden Democrats are operating a far-right troll factory – which among other things the party uses to smear political opponents as well as its supposed allies – has caused probably the biggest rift yet between them and the three other parties that make up Sweden’s ruling coalition.

The leaders of the Moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberals all strongly criticised the Sweden Democrats’ blatant violation of the so-called “respect clause” in their Tidö collaboration agreement – the clause that states that the four parties should speak respectfully of each other in the media.

But after crisis talks held on Thursday, the conflict appears to be dying down.

The Sweden Democrats hit out strongly at the TV4 Kalla Fakta documentary where the troll factory was revealed, calling it a smear campaign and disinformation, but simultaneously went as far as to confirm that they do run anonymous social media accounts for which they refused to apologise.

They did say sorry to the Tidö parties for including them in the smear campaigns, and promised to remove some of the posts that had offended the other three parties, plus reassign a couple of members of staff to other duties until they’ve been given training on the Tidö “respect clause”.

But that doesn’t remove the fact that they vowed to continue the anonymous social media accounts whose existence they had prior to the documentary consistently denied, or the fact that some of the social media posts shared not only vague anti-immigration content, but white power propaganda.

The Liberals took the row the furthest, with Liberal leader Johan Pehrson describing people in his party as skitförbannade – pissed off as hell. He said ahead of the crisis meeting that they would demand that the Sweden Democrats cease all anonymous posting, which the latter rejected.

The party had two choices: walk out of the government collaboration and possibly spark a snap election, or walk back its strong words ahead of the meeting and wait for it to blow over.

They chose a kind of middle way, and called for an inquiry to be launched into banning political parties from operating anonymous social media accounts. The Social Democrats immediately accused the Liberals of trying to “bury the issue in an inquiry” – a classic Swedish political method of indecisive conflict avoidance which the Social Democrats themselves are well familiar with.

The Christian Democrats and Moderates both said that the Sweden Democrats had accepted their criticism and welcomed the party’s reshuffling of staff within its communications department, adding that it still had to prove its commitment to the Tidö agreement going forward.

So why isn’t this causing a bigger government crisis?

We asked Evelyn Jones, a politics reporter for the Dagens Nyheter daily, to come on the Sweden in Focus podcast to explain it to us:

“The Sweden Democrats are the biggest party in this coalition, even though they’re not part of the government. So the government really needs them. It’s hard for them to just stop cooperating with the Sweden Democrats,” she said.

“The cooperation between the government parties and the Sweden Democrats has been going pretty smoothly since the last election – more smoothly than a lot of people thought. This is probably the biggest crisis so far, but how big it is, is hard to say.”

You can listen to the full interview with her and the rest of the Sweden in Focus podcast here. 

In other news

If you are a descendant of a Sweden-born person and would like to find out more about them, there are ways to do that. I wrote this week about how to research your Swedish ancestry.

That guide was prompted by my interview with the chair of a community history group in a small parish in north-central Sweden, which has tried to get to the bottom of rumours that US mega star Taylor Swift’s ancestors hail from their village. I had so much fun writing this article.

The EU elections will be held on June 9th, but advance voting begins next week in Sweden. And poll cards are already being sent out, so if you’re eligible to vote you should receive yours soon.

Sweden’s consumer price index fell to 3.9 percent in April, below 4.0 percent for the first time in two years, reinforcing predictions that the central bank will keep lowering interest rates.

Sweden’s four-party government bloc has broken with the other parties in a parliamentary committee on public service broadcasting, adding what the opposition complains are “radically changed” proposals. How shocking are they?

Many people move to Sweden because of their partner’s career. Perhaps you’re one of these so-called “trailing spouses”. I’ve been asking readers in this situation how they’re settling in, and will have an article for you next week. There’s still time to answer our survey to share your experience.

Thanks for reading.

Have a good weekend,

Emma

Inside Sweden is our weekly newsletter for members which gives you news, analysis and, sometimes, takes you behind the scenes at The Local. It’s published each Saturday and with Membership+ you can also receive it directly to your inbox.

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