{"id":33003,"date":"2018-11-24T00:40:12","date_gmt":"2018-11-24T07:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swedishfreak.com\/?p=33003"},"modified":"2018-11-26T00:49:23","modified_gmt":"2018-11-26T07:49:23","slug":"stirring-in-the-cauldron-swedish-politics-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swedishfreak.com\/2018\/stirring-in-the-cauldron-swedish-politics-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Stirring in the Cauldron (Swedish Politics 2018)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The formation of a new government in Sweden is becoming a confusing serial. Today is 77 days after the election, but the newly elected parliament hasn\u2019t been able to agree on who should become Prime Minister and form a new government. Here\u2019s a summary of what\u2019s happened so far:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">When the new parliament was assembled the first time, they had to vote, as stipulated in the constitution, about to keep or unseat the then sitting PM, Stefan L\u00f6fven, chairman of the Social Democrats. He was unseated. Thus, the Speaker becomes responsible for nominating a new PM. <\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">First, the Speaker assigned Ulf Kristersson, chairman of the Moderate Party and leader of the four-party Alliance, to probe if he could get support for becoming PM. After two weeks, he reported back: Negative.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>The Alliance is the parliament\u2019s right wing, consisting of two liberal parties \u2013 the Liberals and the Center Party \u2013 and two conservative parties \u2013 the Moderates and the Christian Democrats.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">Next, Stefan L\u00f6fven, the recently unseated PM, who is currently leading the interim government, got the same assignment. After two weeks, he reported back: Negative.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>The problem here is that neither one can muster enough votes to get a majority. Kristersson can get elected if the ultra-right Sweden Democrats vote for him, provided that all the other parties in the Alliance also support him \u2013 but the two liberal parties in the Alliance have sworn not to accept a majority that relies on the Sweden Democrats&#8230;<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">Third, the Speaker decided to nominate Ulf Kristersson for PM, even though he hadn\u2019t been able to get enough promises of support when he tried. As expected, the parliament voted no. That is, the parliament had first unseated the PM and then rejected his main contender. Now what?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>It also meant that the two liberal parties in the Alliance voted against \u201ctheir own\u201d candidate. Is the Alliance falling apart?<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>At this point, it was pretty much expected that Stefan L\u00f6fven should be nominated, but he opposed, saying that it would be meaningless, since nothing seems to have changed. So instead&#8230;<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">Fourth, the Speaker assigned Annie L\u00f6\u00f6f, chairwoman of the rather small Center Party, to probe if she could find ANY combination or coalition that could agree on a candidate who would be accepted by the parliament. After one week, she reported back: Negative. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>Still, Ms L\u00f6\u00f6f\u2019s witchcraft might have worked&#8230; she must\u2019ve heated and stirred the cauldron enough to make the potion boil and bubble. <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">Fifth, the Speaker decided to nominate Stefan L\u00f6fven for PM, which he now accepted. The nomination will be made official in the parliament on December 3, and the voting will take place two days thereafter, as prescribed in the constitution. Why did he accept the nomination this time? Did Ms L\u00f6\u00f6f\u2019s potion work?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>Speculations are that the Liberals might want to change side. Their leader, Jan Bj\u00f6rklund, says that no alternative can be ruled out, but decisions are up to the party council. Is he aiming to be a minister in L\u00f6fven\u2019s government? <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>But L\u00f6fven will also need support from the Center Party. That\u2019s a little harder, because a only few months ago, Annie L\u00f6\u00f6f declared that she\u2019d rather die than be in a government lead by Stefan L\u00f6fven. But&#8230; who knows, she might be able to negotiate a few of her campaign promises even if she stays out of the government, if she supports L\u00f6fven.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>In the meantime, the Moderates are probably promising the world to the Center and Liberal parties if they vote no&#8230;<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>Either way, the Liberals and the Center Party will face harsh criticism for breaking their campaign promises: 1) not accept a government dependent on the Swedish Democrats, and 2) not support a government with Stefan L\u00f6fven as PM. <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">Sixth is yet to come&#8230; on December 5. Stay tuned.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The formation of a new government in Sweden is becoming a confusing serial. Today is 77 days after the election, but the newly elected parliament hasn\u2019t been able to agree on who should become Prime Minister and form a new government. Here\u2019s a summary of what\u2019s happened so far: When the new parliament was assembled &#8230; <a title=\"Stirring in the Cauldron (Swedish Politics 2018)\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swedishfreak.com\/2018\/stirring-in-the-cauldron-swedish-politics-2018\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Stirring in the Cauldron (Swedish Politics 2018)\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":33004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[451],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[2045,2056,1953,2053,1961,2051,2049,2052,2048,2057,1978,1971,1649,2054,2055,2050,2058,1998,1964,2002],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swedishfreak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33003"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swedishfreak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swedishfreak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swedishfreak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swedishfreak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33003"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swedishfreak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33005,"href":"https:\/\/www.swedishfreak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33003\/revisions\/33005"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swedishfreak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swedishfreak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swedishfreak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swedishfreak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33003"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swedishfreak.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=33003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}