Sweden Election Update

As a quick repeat of events: Sweden is currently attempting to form a government due to an inconclusive election. To form a government, a party (or group of parties) needs 175 votes. A minority government can form if other parties allow it. As mentioned in prior blogs, there are 2 main blocks of parties: the centre-left and the Alliance. There is also the far-right Sweden Democrats. There was already one attempt to form a government via the Alliance. The centre-left was then given the opportunity to form a government, which also failed.

And just to list out the major players/facts:

Swedish parliament speaker: Andreas Norlén

Leader of the centre-right Alliance (Moderate party): Ulf Kristersson

Past prime minister though still caretaker of the government (centre-left bloc): Stefan Löfven

Sweden Democrats leader (far right political group): Jimmie Åkesson


Centre-left bloc parties (144 total seats):

Social Democrats (100 seats)
Left Party (28)
Green Party (16)

Alliance parties (143 total seats):

Moderates (70)
Centre Party (31)
Christian Democrats (22)
Liberals (20)

Sweden Democrats (62)

Okay . . .



I admit upfront I'm no expert on Sweden politics. I just happen to find this political deadlock interesting. I knew that Swedish rules state that there are 4 chances to have a Prime Minister and if all attempts fail, a new election will be required. I'd assumed two chances were already taken as the Alliance and centre-left bloc were each given an opportunity to form a government.

Per Sweden's Local (Nov 5th), I found out this was a wrong assumption. Per the article, Ulf Kristersson, Moderate/Alliance leader will be nominated as the next Prime Minister. To me, didn't he already get the first chance to form a government? Well:


The speaker has a total of four chances to ask a candidate to try to form a government that will be accepted by parliament – and all four chances still remain, since parliament has not yet voted on any proposal. 

So the first two attempts to form a government might be viewed as more of a negotiation. Now an actual vote will take place. Per the article, if I understand, this vote will take place as early as Wednesday, November 14th. If Kristersson wants to be Prime Minister via a majority government, he needs to convince the Left Party and Green Party (centre-left bloc) to join him (I'm thinking the Social Democrats wouldn't join as they are the largest party). One unlikely option would be to get the right wing Sweden Democrats to join, but then per the article both the Centre Party and Liberals might leave the Alliance, which would leave him short of the needed 175. There is still the option that he could lead a minority government if other parties simply don't vote against him.  


Breitbart had this to say about a coalition between Moderates and the right wing Sweden Democrats:

Moderate and centre-right voters in Sweden increasingly see working with the Sweden Democrats as a workable means to give Sweden a government, and to influence how the country is run in the future. In a newly released poll, voters of both the Moderates and the Christian Democrats agree that the party should look toward some kind of talks with the populists.

According to the poll, conducted by Novus for Swedish broadcaster SVT, 85 per cent of Moderate voters and 83 per cent of Christian Democrat voters held a favourable view of working with the SD.

Of course, what Breitbart fails to mention is that the Moderates and Christian Democrats are only two of the four parties that make up the Alliance. As mentioned above, the two other parties (Centre Party and Liberals) would walk. Of course, the poll is of voters and not party leaders. So . . .

If you look at the poll (the article is in Swedish and needs to be put through Google translator), it is true that both Moderates and Christian Democrats voters are for talks. However, three other parties are heavily against talks with Sweden Democrats. The two missing parties from the poll are the Greens and Liberals due to small sample sizes. One can conclude then that the Centre Party voters are against such talks. Without the Centre party; the Moderates, Christian Democrats and Sweden Democrats would not be able to form a majority government and I doubt the other parties would allow a minority party to form. And anyways, it would be a very short-sighted victory as the Alliance coalition would be finished.