The bills were debated on August 12th and passed on August 13th.
They include, among other things: lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 14 for serious crimes, a reduced 'discount' on sentences for 15-17-year-olds, allowing electronic monitoring for children from age 13, and abolishing the current 'discount' on sentences for those convicted of multiple crimes at the same time.
The new law on lowering the age of criminal responsibility means that 14-year-olds will be able to be sentenced to prison.
"This will strengthen the possibilities to rehabilitate children and strengthen society's protection against serious crime," said Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer of the Moderates during Wednesday's debate.
The Left Party, the Green Party and the Centre Party voted no. The Social Democrats voted yes.
"Punishing these children is putting the responsibility on the children that society has failed to protect," said Gudrun Nordborg of the Left Party.
The government initially wanted to lower the age to 13 years, but in June changed it to 14 years when the first proposal lacked support in the Riksdag.
The decision to reduce the sentence discount for young people under 18 years of age means that the discount, as a general rule, will be 80 percent of the sentence an adult would have received.
The Left and Green parties voted against reducing the penalty discount for minors.
Eliminating the sentencing 'discount' for multiple offences united the opposition parties in voting.
The Social Democrats warned that abolishing the quantity discount without having a proper plan could lead to prisoners needing to be released early.
"It would be a disaster," said their legal policy spokesperson Teresa Carvalho.
"The proposals are sloppily prepared, the prison places are not available and the financing is reminiscent of a classic skipping out on the bill," said Carvalho in the August 12th debate.
She also pointed out that the government's bill does not contain an entry into force date.
"The government is asking the Riksdag for a blank check. I do not intend to sign it. That would be deeply irresponsible towards the voters," said Carvalho.
The Tidö parties promise to let the proposal enter into force in 2029 or 2030.
According to Carvalho, it will take significantly longer before the Swedish Prison Service has sufficient capacity and warns against implementing the legislation too early.
"It risks creating long queues for serving prison sentences and, in the worst case, a British scenario where a future government is forced to release prisoners early. That would be a disaster," she said.
"If you sentence people to prison years, you have to have prison places on par with this. It's that simple."
The government's proposal means that the combined sentence for the three most serious crimes should be the benchmark for the courts when sentencing.
According to the Moderates, a serial rapist like the Nytorgsmannen, who received five years in prison in 2021, would likely receive twice as long a sentence with the government's proposal.
The Social Democrats say that they also want to reduce the current quantity discount, but only for serious violent crimes, particularly violent sexual crimes, with which the party wants to start with in the next term, if they form the government.
The Tidö parties accuse the Social Democrats of bluffing.
"If the red-greens win the election, there will be no abolition of the quantity discount, because there is no support for it," said the chairman of the justice committee, Henrik Vinge, a Sweden Democrat, in the debate.
According to him, there is ideological resistance from the "left opposition," and above all in the Left and Green parties, to tightening the penalty.
"The Social Democrats cannot admit this, then they would risk losing the entire election. Therefore, they have no choice but to come up with an excuse," said Vinge.
It will be the government that takes office after the election that will decide when the laws will come into force and assess when there are enough prison places.
"It is the next government that must take responsibility for this," said Carvalho of the Social Democrats.
"It is important to be honest with the voters. We in the Social Democrats want to abolish the quantity discount for violent and sexual crimes. We are going to the election on starting with sexual crimes. There we can remove all discounts immediately."
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