Swedish Prime Minister, Stefan Löfven’s new government is fighting to stay alive as the Swedish Parliament slides towards a budget crisis. Parliament is due to vote on the government’s budget tomorrow.
On Tuesday night, Löfven called an emergency budget meeting in Stockholm with leaders of the Swedish Center-Right Alliance who will be tabling their own rival budget on Wednesday. Earlier on Tuesday, Löfven told Dagens Nyheter that a new election was a possibility over the budget crisis. The Swedish PM said that a new election is “not the first choice but you can’t rule it out. We just had an election so that’s why I mean we all must think. The voters have given us a result and as we see the playing field I think the electorate expect us to handle the situation.”
On Tuesday night, it appeared that Löfven’s position was softening, saying he would be willing to listen to proposals by the alliance. Löfven could delay a vote by sending the budget back to the parliamentary Finance Committee.
Meanwhile, former Swedish PM and Foreign Minister, Carl Bildt tweeted that the “Red-green government likely collapses. Was bound to happen sooner or later. This was sooner.”
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- The Swedish Parliament will vote on the budget on 3 December.
- There will first be a vote on the Alliance and SD’s opposition budget motions.
- If the SD vote in support of the Alliance’s budget, together with the other Alliance parties, it will strike down the government’s budget.
- The government can then choose to call an extraordinary election or resign and let the President nominate a new Prime Minister.
- The government could also choose to change the proposed budget and negotiate with the Alliance.
- If the government announces additional selections can be made earliest December 29th.
- Extraordinary elections must be held within three months after the decision.
