‘What is going on?’ (What’s going on) is a starting point. Photo: Lars Schröder/TT
What’s happening?
There’s a lot going on in Swedish politics (politics, but also ‘policy’) at the moment.
The government (government) just lost a motion of no confidence (no-confidence vote) which saw a majority of the Parliament (parliament) vote to topple them. That’s created a government crisis (government crisis).
There are two possibilities for what happens next: we could get a speaker’s roundwhich has no direct English translation but refers to talks between the Speaker (speaker of parliament) and party leader (party leaders), or we could be heading for an extra election (snap election). The word for ‘election’ is valwhich also means ‘choice’ and ‘whale’, just to make things extra confusing for Swedish learners.
The current crisis erupted over market rents (market rents), a centre-right policy that the centre-left government reluctantly agreed to look into, but which was a step too far for the Left Party, on whose support the government relies.
What next?
It depends if the prime minister (Prime Minister) chooses to go for an extra election or speaker’s round.
If it’s an extra electionit should take place in September and Swedish citizens over the age of 18 have right to vote (right to vote) and will be able to vote (vote). The most recent party sympathy polls (party sympathy surveys) show that a right-wing government would be on track for a knapp majority (narrow majority) but it’s very, very close.
If it’s a speaker’s roundthe Speaker will speak to the different party leader and appoint one of them, who he thinks has a chance at forming a viable government, to probe (this roughly means ‘to feel/sound out’ and in politics, it refers to chatting to the other leaders to see if they can gather enough support for a government).
Forming a viable government will require some parties to reach a Compromise (compromise), since the Centre Party, for example, has ruled out cooperation (cooperation) with the Left but also with the far-right.
The parties
First there are the The Social Democrats (Social Democrats) and The Green Party (Green Party), who have been running Sweden as a coalition government (coalition government).
They were able to come to power thanks to reaching an agreement with two former members of their opposition, the The Center Party (Centre Party) and The Liberals (Liberals). The agreement where they agreed support in exchange for policy influence is called The January agreement (the January Deal), and that makes the Centre and Liberals support parties (support parties).
Also usually backing the government is The left party (the Left Party), although it has no formal agreement in place like the Centre and Liberals, so is technically part of the opposition — that’s why it pushed for a vote of no-confidence over one of the points in the The January agreement.
On the right side of the political spectrum, The moderates (the Moderates) and The Christian Democrats (Christian Democrats) were formerly part of a four-party coalition with the Centre and Liberals called The Alliance (the Alliance). These parties are often referred to as the bourgeois (the bourgeois – which doesn’t automatically have the same strong connotations in Swedish as in English).
Further to the right are The Sweden Democrats (Sweden Democrats), a party with roots in the far-right which runs on an anti-immigration platform.
Useful phrases
What options are there now? – What alternatives are there now?
Will there be an additional election? – Will there be a snap election?
In whose favor will a by-election be? – Who would benefit from a snap election?
Will Stefan Löfven be able to create a government? – Will Stefan Löfven be able to form a government?
Why are market rents such an important issue? – Why are market rents such an important issue?
How much influence will the Left Party/Center Party get? – How much influence will the Left Party/Centre Party have?
What do you think will happen now? – What do you think will happen next?
And if you find yourself in a political debate and not sure what to say next, you can never go wrong with a drawn out, non-committal njaaaa… (well…).