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Stefan Lofven was the prime minister who lost his untrusted vote in Sweden as he continues to struggle with the emergence of a large, populist anti-immigration party that has put Scandinavian politics in turmoil.
Lofven, the leader of the center-left Social Democrats, lost the vote in the Swedish parliament with 181 votes to 109. He now has seven days in favor to decide whether to call a one-off election or try to form a new government.
The anger of the traditional communist left-wing party sparked the vote, with proposals to suspend rent controls on new apartments, including the populist Swedish Democrats along with the right-wing opposition.
Swedish politics has been fighting for more than a decade to fight the rise of Swedish Democrats, the first to enter parliament in 2010 and third in the last election in 2018 with 17.5 per cent. Their support has increased the traditional left-right divide in Swedish politics.
Long pariahs as a result of their neo-Nazi roots, Swedish democracies have come from the cold in the last parliament, while seeking to cooperate with the two main opposition center-right parties, the moderates and the Christian Democrats.
Swedish Democrats called for a no-confidence vote to take advantage of the Left’s grievance to gain a majority in parliament against Lofven, while Sweden continues to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This government is not only harmful, it is historically weak and it is also a complete inability to solve the problems that the citizens of our country face on a daily basis,” Jimmie Akesson, the leader of the Swedish Democrats, said on Monday.
The Social Democrats called the reunification of the Left and Swedish Democrats against Lofven a “holy alliance”.
Swedish politics is so fragmented that it is difficult to form a coherent government both in the current parliament and in the polls if there are quick elections, political scientists say.
Lofven has a chance to move forward, either as a caretaker head of the administration or by forming a minimal coalition that includes the green party and has so far had the support of the Center party and the left in parliament.
The head of the moderate right-wing opposition center of the moderate Ulf Kristersson has said that excluding Swedish democrats from political debates – as the Social Democrats continue to do – would lead to “polarization and distrust”.
If short elections are called, it is likely that the center-right will campaign on immigration, integration and the rise in violent crime, which Kristersson described last year as the “second pandemic” to the Financial Times.
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