Snap election in Sweden after new government's first budget is defeated

Snap election in Sweden after new government's first budget is defeated
By Euronews
Share this articleComments
Share this articleClose Button

Sweden is set to go to the polls on March 22 next year in a snap election called after the centre-left minority government lost a budget vote in parliament.

ADVERTISEMENT

Sweden is to hold its first snap election in over half a century after the new minority centre-left government’s first budget was defeated in parliament.

It comes after the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats sided with the centre-right opposition.

Prime Minister Stefan Lofven blamed the centre-right he replaced in power less than three months ago for giving an effective veto to the far-right Sweden Democrats, who won 13 percent of the vote in September’s election.

“The previous four government parties made clear during the campaign in August and September that they would not let the Sweden Democrats get that kind of influence,” he told a news conference.

“Now they just gave them that kind of influence. That is exactly why we are calling this extra election.”

Lofven’s Social Democrat-Green coalition has been widely viewed as Sweden’s weakest government in decades.

Shunned by mainstream parties, the Sweden Democrats have threatened to make Sweden effectively ungovernable unless the country adopts tough immigration policies, including a 90 percent cut in the number of asylum seekers.

The party doubled its vote in September’s election to become the third largest party, echoing recent poll successes for the far right across Europe.

In neighbours Denmark and Finland, anti-immigration parties are now among the three most popular in some opinion polls. In Norway, a rightist populist party is in the ruling coalition.

The crisis has shaken the image of Sweden, a country often held up as a paragon of political and fiscal stability, in contrast to crisis-hit Europe.

Sweden’s early election will be held on March 22.

Share this articleComments

You might also like

GPS jamming by Russia was already a concern. For the Nordic NATO countries, it may only get worse

Fire breaks out at one of Sweden's largest water parks

Sweden closes probe into Nord Stream pipelines explosion