Swedish Prime Minister Announces Resignation to Avoid Early Elections

The Swedish Prime Minister, the Social Democrat Stefan Löfven, announced this Monday morning his resignation as head of the Government of the Scandinavian country. Löfven had lost just a week ago a vote of no confidence presented by the conservative opposition - although supported by its external partners in the Executive, the Left party - on account of a change of course in its policies regarding the rental housing market of new construction. The president of the Riksdag (Parliament), the conservative Andreas Norlén, will now open a negotiation procedure with all the groups in the Chamber, including the Social Democrats, to commission an Executive to lead the country until September 2022 and thus avoid going to elections anticipated. Löfven, who had until midnight today to make a decision,he had ruled out calling the ten million Swedes to the polls himself because at this moment "it is not the best for Sweden," said the president.

Löfven, encouraged by his liberal investiture partners, the Center party, had opened a couple of weeks ago the possibility of liberalizing the rental market - extremely regulated in the country - for the cases of newly built houses. Since the rise of the Swedish welfare model, promoted by the late Olof Palme in the 1980s, the Scandinavian country's real estate market was totally corseted by the state and has formed a bubble, especially in Stockholm, the capital, suffered by millions of tenants who they are forced to endure endless waiting lists to access a home.

This issue is one of the main concerns of society and the political class in Sweden. So much so, that Löfven promised in his 2018 election campaign his willingness to confront it. Although he did not detail how. In January 2019, four months after the elections in which he was proclaimed winner, Annie Lööf, leader of the Center Party (liberal), decided to break with the opposition right-wing alliance to unblock the situation of ungovernability and finally offer her external support to Löfven so that he could be sworn in as prime minister, thus revalidating his mandate for another four years. But there was a price: liberalizing the housing market, at least for newly built houses. And Löfven relented.

Just opening that debate to expert consultations represented a red line for Löfven's external associates of the Left, with communist roots, and they had been warned about this for months. Finally, last Monday, and seeing an opportunity to weaken Löfven, the extreme right of the Swedish Democrats (third parliamentary force) presented a motion against the Social Democratic leader that was widely supported by the House: 181 favorable votes, six more than those. strictly necessary. "It is a historic moment" in Sweden, the newspaper

Dagens Nyheter

remarked on Monday.

in reference to the fall of the Government as a result of a motion of censure. "It is a historic moment because never a prime minister, not even a minister, had fallen into a vote of no confidence," adds the political scientist Ulf Bjereld, from the University of Gothenburg. In his appearance this Monday, a serious Löfven has attributed the responsibility of the new scenario of political instability to The Left: "They voted [in the motion of censure] to overthrow the Government without even having an alternative prepared," he lamented.

During the last seven days, the former trade unionist has maintained intensive contacts with the rest of the parliamentary forces to avoid what is already an unprecedented scenario in Sweden. Even Lööf, faced with this political earthquake, and to avoid elections, gave his arm to twist by withdrawing the demand for reform of the market for the rental of newly built houses. "That was a great victory for The Left," interprets Bjereld, a renowned political commentator in Sweden. But it was too late and the clock was racing against the only male prime minister in the Nordic region.

Called by analysts as a great negotiator, Löfven had some silver lining to be able to convince the rest of the groups that there was no feasible alternative - that is, leaving out the extreme right on which a sanitary cordon has traditionally been imposed, although little by little he is loosening- his government of the

red

-

green

coalition

(for his alliance with environmentalists) in a highly fragmented Riksdag.

He also wanted to convince that early elections were not ideal at a time like the present and that he was not going to facilitate them.

“One year after the elections [scheduled for September 2022] and in the midst of a pandemic, extraordinary [early] elections are not the best for Sweden.

I have asked for his resignation as prime minister ”, Löfven solemnly declared at a press conference in which he confessed that this Monday was“ the most difficult decision ”he has made.

Negotiation rounds

Once Norlén, from the conservative Moderados party, formally accepts the resignation of the Social Democrat, the president of Parliament will open the

talmansrunda,

a

sine die

period

- it can even be extended until the elections scheduled for September 2022 - of rounds of negotiation with leaders of other forces to try to form an Executive that is accepted by the Riksdag

.

Meanwhile, Löfven will continue to command the acting country. "[The acting prime minister] can continue to do almost everything, except call elections," explains the political scientist at the University of Gothenburg. In fact, the Swedish Constitution prohibits anyone from calling elections in these circumstances. This forces the Parliament to vote up to a maximum of four times on Norlén's prime ministerial candidate proposals. If none is accepted, Sweden will go to its first early elections since 1958. Analysts, however, do not believe that the blood will reach the river and estimate that the whole process, until Sweden creates a new government, will last between two and four weeks .

But Bjereld and other experts cited by the local press point out that Löfven, with 24% support in the latest polls and 100 deputies (out of 349), will remain in the forefront in order to form a new government. The most obvious alternative is called Ulf Kristersson, leader of the Moderates, whose support is 22% in voting intention polls and has 70 seats in the Riksdag. But it will be difficult because the accounts do not come out.

Kristersson, along with the Christian Democrats, has in recent years shown signs of a breaking of the sanitary cordon against the far-right of the Swedish Democrats. Not even with potential support from the ultras - which would be historic in Sweden - do they have enough support in the House to form an alternative government to that of the left-wing bloc led by Löfven. Since the Social Democrat revalidated his mandate at the polls in 2018 until he was able to form a government, 134 days passed. Sweden has started the political timer again today.