Sweden: Magdalena Andersson re-elected

Parliamentary vote

In the second attempt, the previous Treasury Secretary Andersson again received just enough support from Parliament.

(Photo: via REUTERS)

Stockholm The second attempt has now worked: Magdalena Andersson is the new Swedish Prime Minister. On Monday, the previous finance minister received the necessary votes for the assumption of office in the parliament in Stockholm. The 54-year-old social democrat succeeds Stefan Löfvén, who announced his resignation as party leader and head of government in August. Andersson wants to form a social democratic minority government that will work with changing majorities.

Despite a difficult starting position, Andersson was relieved to see her choice. On Wednesday last week, she had already been elected head of government, but had to resign after seven hours.

This was preceded by a political drama the likes of which Sweden had never experienced before: Shortly after her election last week, the budget presented by her red-green minority government for the coming year fell through. This made it clear that Andersson had to rule with the budget of the right-wing opposition.

She didn’t see that as a major problem. The situation is completely different for the Greens, who under no circumstances wanted to continue to govern with a budget that included lower taxes on petrol and diesel, among other things. They announced their departure from the coalition. With that, the minority government of the new Prime Minister was history.

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As planned, Andersson will read out her government statement in the Reichstag on Tuesday morning and then also present her cabinet. The new government is expected to go to the King on the same day before it officially begins its work. Then Andersson will become the very first woman Prime Minister of Sweden – after 33 men in that post.

Independent politics hardly possible

She does not have much time to lead her party out of the polls. The next parliamentary elections will take place in ten months, in September 2022.

Until then, it will be extremely difficult for them to have an independent policy. Your Social Democrats only get 100 of the 349 parliamentary seats. Therefore, Andersson needs the support of at least two other parties in all bills. Her work is also made more difficult because she has to rule with the opposition’s budget.

Sweden, like other northern European countries, has a long tradition of minority government, but rarely has a government been as weak as Andersson’s cabinet. One problem is the bloc policy in Sweden, which is still valid today.

Cross-bloc cooperation between Social Democrats, the ex-communist Left Party and the Greens on the one hand, and the Conservatives, Christian Democrats, Liberals and right-wing populist Sweden Democrats on the other, has so far been impossible. The Center Party, which until recently felt part of the bourgeois camp, recently supported the red-green government.

A grand coalition between conservatives and social democrats is unthinkable in Sweden to this day. This makes it extremely difficult to find a majority in the Swedish parliament. The center-left block currently has 175 votes and the center-right block has 174.

Andersson advocates austerity policies in Europe

Andersson has been Treasury Secretary since 2014 and has led the country well through all crises through tight financial policies. At the European level, Andersson will advocate a tough austerity policy. “If you don’t save, you have to pay for your debts yourself,” she said to some southern European EU countries. Even under the leadership of its predecessor, Sweden joined the “thrifty four”, which in addition to Sweden also includes Denmark, Austria and the Netherlands. Finland later joined this position.
Andersson has otherwise stayed out of political controversy and has let Prime Minister Löfvén go first when it comes to mediating between the different wings of the party. In the future, she herself will be asked when it comes to mediating internal party conflicts.

It has to show the party base that traditional social democratic politics are non-negotiable. Not even at the cost of maintaining power.

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