Sweden’s right-wing parties get the formal go-ahead to start coalition talks
The leader of Sweden’s third largest party – the centre-right Moderates – was formally asked to try to form a new government on Monday by the Speaker of the Riksdag.
The new government is likely to include the far-right anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats either as a formal coalition partner, or provide support to the government in a so-called “confidence and supply agreement”.
In Sweden’s election on September 11, the country’s right-wing parties secured 176 seats in the Riksdag; while left-wing parties together won only 173 seats in a closely contested election.
Now the Speaker of the Riksdag has ordered the leader of the Moderates, Ulf Kristersson, to try to form a coalition government, without setting a deadline for doing so.
“My message to the Speaker has been that everything is going well,” Kristersson told reporters after meeting the Speaker of the Riksdag. “I want to form a government that unites, not divides.”
Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Åkesson also met the speaker and said afterwards that “it would suit Sweden to have a majority government. That is my view.”
The question now is which coalition can reach a majority. One of the centrist parties has said it does not want to be in a coalition with the right-wing Sweden Democrats, a party founded in the 1980s by the far-right and which is now the country’s second largest in parliament.
Various centre-right combinations are possible but it seems clear that the Sweden Democrats will have significant influence in any centre-right government.
The populist party has tried to move towards the mainstream in recent years, standing this year on a platform to crack down on crime and strictly limit immigration.
Sweden has seen an increase in gang violence in recent years and so far this year there have been 273 shootings, 47 of which were fatal, according to police statistics. The shootings also injured 74 people, including innocent bystanders.
Last week, Sweden’s Social Democratic Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson admitted that he had lost the election. She will continue as guardian until a new government is formed.