The Big Bad Swedish Politics & News Thread

[The Lord Marbury]

Well that was fun.

Magdalena Andersson was elected Sweden's first female PM with the mandate of forming a coalition government between the Social Democrats and the Greens. Seven hours or so later she hands in her resignation to the Speaker, asking to be put before a new vote in the Riksdag, with a mandate to form a Social Democratic minority government.

[The Lord Marbury]

Well that was fun.

Magdalena Andersson was elected Sweden's first female PM with the mandate of forming a coalition government between the Social Democrats and the Greens. Seven hours or so later she hands in her resignation to the Speaker, asking to be put before a new vote in the Riksdag, with a mandate to form a Social Democratic minority government.

Does she need to really do this? Can't she just sack the Green ministers and replace them with Social Democratic ministers?

Well, technically the constitution doesn't specify that she has to do this, but parliamentary convention and the way the constitution has been interpreted dictates that any time a party leaves a coalition government, the entire government should resign and a new government formation process should be initiated by the Speaker.

So she seems to be very careful with running everything by the books. If she had decided to stay on she would've been guaranteed to face accusations of illegitimacy and an immediate no confidence vote from the Moderates. I guess she thought that this was the better alternative.

My guess is that things will move relatively quickly now. It's quite possible that the Speaker proposes before parliament again by tomorrow afternoon. After the Speaker's presented his proposal before the Riksdag two days needs to pass before a vote can be held, so my guess is that she will be elected by Monday at the earliest. Unless the Speaker decides to call the Riksdag in on Saturday, but I don't think he believes the situation warrants it.

[The Lord Marbury]

101 yes
75 abstain
174 no

SHE IS ELECTED (again)

1 member of L abstained against the party line (vote agains), one member of Mp voted in favor against the party line (abstain)

All members of MP abstained according to the party line. The one additional yes vote was from the former V member turned independent, Amineh Kakabaveh.

Magdalena Andersson will deliver her Government Policy Statement in the Riksdag at 9.30 tomorrow morning. At the same time she will announce the ministers which will be part of her government. The handover of power will be made official at 13.00 tomorrow when she and her ministers will meet the King for a Council of State at the Royal Palace.

[The Lord Marbury]

The Minister for Civil Affairs Lena Micko has just said that she won't be in Magdalena Andersson's cabinet. That brings the number of vacancies in the cabinet up to at least 9, though Andersson is rumored to be looking into reducing the number of ministers.

The vacant positions are:

Minister for Finance - currently Magdalena Andersson (Social Democrat)
Minister for Civil Affairs - currently Lena Micko (Social Democrat)
Minister for Enterprise - currently Ibrahim Baylan (Social Democrat)
Minister for Rural Affairs - vacant since July, duties fulfilled by Ibrahim Baylan

Minister for Environment and Climate, Deputy Prime Minister - currently Per Bolund (Green)
Minister for Gender Equality, Minister for Housing - currently Märta Stenevi (Green)
Minister for Financial Markets, Deputy Minister for Finance - currently Åsa Lindhagen (Green)
Minister for International Development - currently Per Olsson Fridh (Green)
Minister for Culture and Democracy - currently Amanda Lind (Green)

Former Minister for Social Security Annika Strandhäll, who stepped down after her partner's suicide in 2019, is rumored to be making a comeback to the cabinet as Minister for Gender Equality. While Minister for Home Affairs Mikael Damberg is rumored to be succeeding Andersson as Finance Minister. Neither of them have answered with a straight yes or no to the press when asked today.

[The Lord Marbury]

Magdalena Andersson has just presented her cabinet.

Andersson Cabinet

Prime Minister’s Office
Prime Minister: Magdalena Andersson
Minister for European Affairs: Hans Dahlgren

Ministry of Justice
Minister for Justice and Home Affairs: Morgan Johansson
Minister for Integration and Migration, Minister for Sports: Anders Ygeman (previously Minister for Energy and Digitalisation)

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Minister for Foreign Affairs: Ann Linde
Minister for Foreign Trade and Nordic Affairs: Anna Hallberg
Minister for International Development: Matilda Ernkrans (previously Minister for Higher Education and Research)

Ministry of Defence
Minister for Defence: Peter Hultqvist

Ministry of Social Affairs
Minister for Social Affairs: Lena Hallengren
Minister for Social Security: Ardalan Shekarabi

Ministry of Finance
Minister for Finance: Mikael Damberg (previously Minister for Home Affairs)
Minister for Financial Markets: Max Elger (new)
Minister for Civil Affairs: Ida Karkiainen (new)

Ministry of Education
Minister for Education: Anna Ekström
Minister for Schools: Lina Axelsson Kihlbom (new)

Ministry of the Environment
Minister for Climate and Environment: Annika Strandhäll (new)

Ministry of Enterprise
Minister for Enterprise: Karl-Petter Thorwaldsson (new)
Minister for Rural Affairs: Anna-Caren Sätherberg (new)

Ministry of Culture
Minister for Culture: Jeanette Gustafsdotter (new)

Ministry of Employment
Minister for Employment and Gender Equality: Eva Nordmark
Minister for Housing, Deputy Minister for Employment: Johan Danielsson (new)

Ministry of Infrastructure
Minister for Infrastructure: Tomas Eneroth
Minister for Energy and Digitalisation: Khashayar Farmanbar (new)

Some notes about the new ministers:

• Anders Ygeman is probably very happy to no longer have to deal with energy policy and return to the Ministry of Justice instead.
• Max Elger has been working closely with Magdalena Andersson as her state secretary since 2014 and has his feet firmly planted in the right flank of the Social Democrats, as does the new Finance Minister Mikael Damberg. Not exactly a good sign for people like me who want to see the Social Democrats take a leftward turn.
• Ida Karkiainen has been an MP since 2014 and at age 33 she's the youngest member of the new cabinet. Other than that I don't know much about her. Though apparently she's a member of the board of the Swedish Sauna Academy, which must be nice.
• Lina Axelsson Kihlbom is a pretty surprising name to see join the cabinet as she has no previous background in Social Democratic politics. She has most recently been Deputy Municipal Manager in Nynäshamn and is a former principal who achieved a little bit of fame when she was featured in a documentary back in 2012 about how she managed to turn around her school's flagging results. She is also Sweden's first transgender cabinet minister.
• Not a big surprise to see Annika Strandhäll return to the cabinet, but perhaps a bit surprising to see her getting the Environment brief.
• Karl-Petter Thorwaldsson used to head LO and he becomes the first former head of the union to go on to join a government since the 1930s. Perhaps a sign that Andersson is concerned with keeping strong ties with the unions when there's no longer a former union man as party leader.
• Anna-Caren Sätherberg has been a Social Democratic spokesperson on regional policy since 2013, an MP for Jämtland since 2014 and Vice Chair of the Riksdag's Enterprise Committee since 2020. Not a surprising pick, she has been mentioned as a likely candidate for the job.
• Jeanette Gustafsdotter was an unexpected name to see as Minister for Culture, pretty much the entire press was predicting that MP Lawen Redar would get the job. Like Axelsson Kihlbom, she doesn't have a previous background in Social Democratic politics. Prior to her appointment she was Secretary General of the Association of Swedish Museums and before that she was head of the Newspaper Publisher's Association.
• Johan Danielsson was the trade union confederation LO's candidate in the 2019 European parliament election. Though I'm not aware how much he has worked with housing policy before.
• Khashayar Farmanbar has been the opposition leader in Magdalena Andersson's home municipality of Nacka since 2013 and is apparently a long time friend of Andersson. Prior to his political career he was the CEO of a company in the IT sector. Other than a seat in the Riksdag, this was probably his best chance of advancement. There's no chance of the Social Democrats taking power in Nacka anytime soon.

[The Lord Marbury]

She is also Sweden's first transgender cabinet minister

Meanwhile in TERFland, we still await our first trans MP.

Eh, the discourse in Sweden can also tend to be pretty TERF-y, even if not at the same level as the UK. We still haven't had our first trans MP either, but we benefit from our cabinet ministers not needing to be MPs (in fact, they're not allowed to be both). But hopefully the appointment of Lina Axelsson Kihlbom is a step in the right direction.

[The Lord Marbury]

Since the election is over and a new government is in place, I thought now would be a good time to revive this thread.

Anyway, there has been some developments in the race to replace Annie Lööf as leader of the Centre Party.

Daniel Bäckström, the party's group leader in the Riksdag and one of the candidates really fumbled a question asked during a town hall meeting on monday.
https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/76pk8w/daniel-backstroms-svar-om-samkonad-vigsel-far-fundera

The three candidates were asked if they would walk at the front of the pride parade like previous party leaders and if they would officiate same-sex marriages if they were able to. The two other candidates unequivocally answered yes to both questions. Bäckström first tried to dodge the question by saying he didn't have the right to officiate marriages and when asked what he would do if he did he said he would need to "think about it". Concerning the pride parade he said he would consult with the rest of the party board on what to do.

Understandably there's been plenty of criticsm of his answers, given that he's running to lead a liberal party that's been very pro-LGBT rights for the past decades. His background in EFS, an evanglical faction of the Church of Sweden which advises against same-sex marriages has also come to light.

A lot of political commentators have said that his candidacy is probably dead in the water due to this. Which is interesting because he was probably the closest thing to a frontrunner in the race before all this happened, since he is the most rural-oriented of the three candidates. What with his strong Värmland accent and background as a municipal commissioner in Säffle. With the party losing the most ground in rural Sweden in the election, it would've made a lot of sense to pick him.

The remaining candidates are Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist and Muharrem Demirok. Thand Ringqvist has roots in Jämtland but has lived Stockholm for a long time, doesn't have a particularly noticeable Jämtland accent and now represents the City of Stockholm in the Riksdag. Demirok grew up in a Stockholm suburb, has an immigrant background, and has been a municipal commissioner in the mid-sized city of Linköping in Östergötland for the past decade or so. So no particularly strong rural profile with either of them.

But Bäckström is still in the race, and he just got endorsed by Helena Lindahl, the sole Centre Party MP to vote against Stefan Löfven in 2019. Maybe he still has a shot, but I'm not the forum's resident C expert so I can't really be the judge of that.

[The Lord Marbury]

https://sverigesradio.se/artikel/muharrem-demirok-nominated-to-become-new-leader-of-centre-party

Muharrem Demirok has been nominated by the Centre Party's election committee to become the party's next leader, pretty much assuring that he will be officially elected to succeed Annie Lööf at the start of February.

Both of his opponents, Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist and Daniel Bäckström have withdrawn from the race. Daniel Bäckström was nominated to become 1st deputy leader, alongside judicial affairs spokesperson Ulrika Liljeberg who was nominated to become 2nd deputy leader. Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist declined to take up any position in the presidium other than that of party leader and will instead focus on parliamentary work.

Demirok had grown to be more of a favourite in the leadership race late last year after initially being seen as a bit of an underdog, especially after Bäckström faltered. Though there was a minor scandal in December when it came to light that he has two previous convictions for assault from the 90s. One when he was 17 and headbutted a fellow student in high school, and one when he was 23 and also headbutted someone at a student pub while drunk. Apparently these were deemed minor enough and too far in the past to disqualify him from being elected.