I don't usually write much about politics (I think) - but sometimes it's hard to completely ignore it. Especially when it's probably making the headlines in world-wide news anyway...
Like today, when Sweden elected its first female Prime Minister ever in the morning, but she had to hand in her resignation the same afternoon.
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| Magdalena Andersson |
Some of you might vaguely recall that we had a bit of a political crisis in Sweden back in the summer as well, caused by a no-confidence vote against our prime minister, Stefan Löfven. I wrote a little bit about that too, in a July post I called Rose Gardens and Politics. (This time of year, I'm more inclined to use images of frost and thaw, which is what the weather has offered this week).
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| Stefan Löfven |
Löfven survived the summer crisis, and was reinstated as PM. However, in the autumn he decided to retire as party leader for the Social Democrats (and thereby also as PM) and let someone else take over before next year's elections. At the Social Democrats' party congress, our Minister of Finance since 7 years, Magdalena Andersson, was elected his successor as party leader. According to standard procedure, to also replace him as Prime Minister, that had to also be passed through the Parliament, though.
After the previous election three years ago (also followed by weeks of chaos) we ended up a minority government consisting of the Social Democrats + the Green Party, with background support by the Center Party and the Liberals (and, somewhat taken for granted, also the Left). After the summer crisis (partly caused by the Left getting tired of being taken for granted), the Liberals dropped out of the cooperation, and after that, the government has been juggling separate negotiations with the Left and Center parties (separate, because the Center party refuses to negotiate with the Left).
This morning, however, the vote in the Parliament was successful for Magdalena Andersson, and she was elected (by one vote) our first female Prime Minister, after the Center as well as the Left decided to "tolerate" her as PM.
Nothing lasts long these days, though... The same afternoon, the Parliament also had to vote about next year's budget. This turned things upside down once more, because here the Center decided to vote against the government's budget, and for the alternative produced by the four "right-wing" parties (including the far-right Sweden Democrats, with whom the Center has previously always refused to cooperate or negotiate in any way).
The newly elected PM declared herself prepared to deal with the adjusted budget, for the short period of time left until the next election (next autumn).
However, the Green Party then suddenly decided that they could not deal with the changed budget... and announced that although they'll still tolerate Magdalena Andersson as PM, they will no longer be part of the government.
With one of the parties leaving the government, the procedure of electing PM (now for a one-party minority government) will have to be repeated. So our first female PM had to hand in her resignation only a few hours after having been elected (and before having been officially instated, a ceremony that was planned for Friday this week). She's declared herself willing to give the procedure another go, though - hoping that the votes in her favour will still be the same as today. (The result still hangs on one single vote, though - and considering all the turmoil today, who knows...)
Writing this, I don't know yet when the second voting in the Parliament will take place.
Meanwhile... Stefan Löfven is still acting PM in the transitional government, and will have to wait a while yet to retire.
🙄
(Do I have an opinion about it all? Sort of. I hope M.A. gets the chance again, partly because there seems to be no real alternative at the moment, and partly because so far, she also seems able to keep her cool in chaos.)
13 comments:
This is interesting and rather confusing to me. How does that work that the Green Party announced it will no longer be part of the government? Do they still individually hold their office they were elected to? Fascinating.
It's not been making headlines in our main TV news yet, because we are struggling so much with the pandemic and our own governmental issues at the moment. We still have no confirmed chancellor (although it is most likely to be Olaf Scholz, a Social Democrat), even though our elections were held in September. In the meantime, Angela Merkel is still acting chancellor, similarly to your Stefan Löfven. And similarly, there are parties in our government who refuse to talk to each other, and the overall acting appears to be very childish.
Terra, this situation is confusing even to experienced professional political commentators. Yesterday's chain of events was unique, and no one seems to have anticipated it happening, i.e. the part of the Green Party deciding to drop out. As our political systems differ I'm not sure I quite understand your question, but if we get a new government consisting of only the Social Democrats, five previous Green Party ministers will have to be replaced with new Social Democrats ministers. Those will be appointed by the prime minister. The old government was already a minority gov and any minority gov will have to negotiate with other parties all the time to get their proposals approved in the parlliament. In the end it's always the parliament that has the final say about the big things. The Green Party will still be represented in the Parliament as before. A change of the balance in the parliament requires a new election. As we have a new election coming up in Sept 2022, no one is really keen on demanding an extra public election before then as that would only mean a lot of extra administration.
Meike, it seems to me that this kind of situation is getting increasingly common in several European parliaments lately. I did see online headlines from BBC and CNN yesterday about our new PM being elected etc, which is why I thought some of my friends abroad might have heard about it.
i did read this but since I do not understand most of how our governent is run i did not strain my brain to underestand yours. that said, i hope she gets a chance to give it a try... PM for one day. wow! our vice president was president for only a few hours this past week, while the president was under anethehsia for a test... our world is nuts
I forgot to mention how much i love the frost covered trees in the first photo.
Sandra, I agree it usually feels quite enough to try and keep up with what's happening in our own country... I guess I wrote this as much for myself as for anyone else (trying to sort out what happened!)
Thank you for that, Monica. It is good to know what is going on in other countries. Our news has been so dominated by the inadequacies of our Prime Minister that what is happening elsewhere has played little part in our news.
oh what a shame. I was hoping she would another Jacinda, our world definitely needs more females in high places.
I found a reference to the situation on the BBC website, but only after I'd read your comments. The whole news item only took up two or three lines, so did not give much information.
It does seem that some countries, and not just those within the EU, are having great problems forming a government. People may be less and less inclined to vote when they realise the inadequacies of those they trust to run their country.
Graham, that strikes me as a sentence that could apply to a number of other countries in the world as well at the moment...
Amy, a second voting in the Parliament is now scheduled for Monday, and as all the parties are (so far) saying that they will be casting their votes the same way as last week, it seems likely that Magdalena Andersson will be (re-)elected as PM. Tough start and a bumpy road ahead for her, though.
CG, I understand your point. Voter participation in the general elections here has gone up in later years though (after a dip for a while before that). (Checking statistics, 87,2% voted in the 2018 election.)
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