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New survey: The winners and losers in Swedish politics

The Local Sweden
The Local Sweden - [email protected]
New survey: The winners and losers in Swedish politics
Support has increased for Stefan Löfven's Social Democrats since the election. Photo: Jessica Gow/TT

Sweden has gone almost three months since its election without a new government. A new key survey now indicates which parties have gained from the low-key turmoil – and which have lost.

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The Social Democrats – who have been leading a caretaker government since the election – was the only party that saw a substantial increase in support in Statistics Sweden's party sympathy survey. A total of 30.5 percent said they would vote for the party if an election were held today, up 2.2 percentage points.

The Sweden Democrats and the Left Party also noted an increase in support compared to the September 9th general election, rising by 0.8 and 0.4 percentage points, respectively, to reach 18.3 and 8.4 percent.

But those were the only parties that had much cause to celebrate their polling numbers when the results of the survey – which quizzed 8,966 eligible voters in November – were released on Tuesday.

In the centre-right Alliance, which mounted a successful no-confidence vote in Prime Minister Stefan Löfven after the election but failed to take power themselves, the Liberal Party fell to 4.3 percent (-1.2), the Christian Democrats to 5.4 percent (-0.9) and the Moderates to 19.2 percent (-0.6). The Centre Party held steady at 8.6 percent.

The Social Democrats' coalition partner, the Green Party, fared no better, with a drop of 0.4 percentage points since the election, putting them exactly at the threshold needed to get any seats in parliament (4 percent).

The results for the Liberals, the Christian Democrats, the Social Democrats, the Green Party and the Sweden Democrats were all statistically significant, said Statistics Sweden.

SWEDEN IN FOCUS: How did the political situation get to where it is today?

Sweden has never before gone this long without a new government. At the moment, the torch is with incumbent centre-left leader Löfven who is expected to put forward his government proposal in the near future. Parliament will then vote for or against it.

There is no set deadline by which Sweden must form a government, but the number of prime ministerial votes that can be held before a snap election is automatically called is capped at four.

The vote on Löfven will be the second chance after parliament voted down Moderates leader Ulf Kristersson. This happened after the Centre Party and Liberals refused to back a government that relied on support from the far-right Sweden Democrats. This means the country is now in untested waters – previously, parliament had always accepted the first candidate to be proposed.

In theory, a government proposal does not need a single vote in its favour in order to pass, but it will fail if a majority votes against it. This means that a government can be "tolerated" by abstentions, sometimes called "passive support".

TIMELINE: Everything that's happened in Swedish politics since the elections

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[email protected] 2018/12/06 12:34
Cool, taking these numbers into account, in four years Svenska Demokraterna can obtain 30%. How will Sweden change when every third will share their ideas and values?

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