It was made clear today that the recently elected minority government constellation of social democrats (progressive liberals) and environmentalists, under the social democratic party leader Stefan Lofven, resigns. They became the shortest reign in the history of the Swedish democratic state.
New elections will be held in March as a result of the minority government’s proposed budget having been killed in parliament. The previous “non-socialist” government’s four “non-socialist” parties voted for their own budget, and the nationalist/racist Sweden Democrats chose to let the Lofven budget and, therefore, reign fall.
This creates an interesting parliamentary situation with quite a bit of uncertainty. The reason is not only that neither the non-socialist parties nor the three leftist parties (the government plus the communist party) have a majority of the votes (with the Sweden Democrats able to tip any vote). No, the fact is that the leader of the by far largest opposition party, the kind-of conservatives, and former Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt resigned after the election in September, leaving the party leaderless. Also, the social democrats and environmentalists will campaign as separate parties but based on their joint budget (that was killed in parliament today), a budget that was negotiated between the two parties and the communists.
So there are no real alternatives in the upcoming extra elections: the leaderless non-socialist alliance versus the failed minority social democratic-environmentalist cartel with a part-communist budget - and the right wing nationalists seeking to expand their power. There is also the radical feminist party, which failed to reach the necessary 4% to enter the Swedish parliament, the Riksdag.
The best outcome of this, of course, is if the parliament becomes deadlocked with a very weak minority government dependent on the very fragmented and therefore uncertain support from the Riksdag. If all goes well, then, the government will have no power at all. Unfortunately, due to Sweden’s membership in the super state of the European Union means state rule will still be expanded, which was not the case when Sweden was a sovereign kingdom. But at least there might be a fall in the number of suffocating laws enacted in the years to come.
Another potential outcome, though not at all as attractive, is that a majority multi-party government can be formed by the social democrats including the communist and radical feminist parties. If that is the case, the world might see a wave of Swedes (mostly men) seeking political asylum in much more hospitable countries - like the US, Afghanistan, or North Korea...
