Far-right Sweden Democrats urge speaker to force parliamentary vote on Andersson
Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson threw in the towel on her first attempt to form a government, but Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson still thinks parliament should hold a vote on her candidacy for prime minister, based on her support from the Green Party, Left Party and Centre Party. The latter two have not been able to agree on which of them, if any, should be allowed to hold ministerial positions in such a government.
"She campaigned on forming a government with these four parties. Now it's time for her to prove it," said Åkesson, adding that he is not afraid of a snap election.
Andersson said she had no viable path forward to form a government after the Left Party voted for Moderate MP Andreas Norlén as parliament Speaker.
Several party leaders believe it is now Moderate leader Ulf Kristersson's turn to try. However, he maintained that the decision lies squarely with the speaker.
Asked if he would accept the task, Kristersson said: "I am always ready. I said on election night that if the conditions exist for some kind of non-socialist governing coalition, I stand ready. But it is the speaker who must decide whether those conditions appear to be there," he was quoted by the TT news agency as saying during the formal opening of parliament on Tuesday.
Today, a new round of talks with all party leaders awaits, after which Norlén will assign a new exploratory mandate to one of them.
"My message to the speaker tomorrow will be that I think he should ensure Magdalena Andersson is put to a vote in parliament as soon as possible," said Åkesson. "The gridlock we are seeing is obvious, and the speaker has the opportunity to put pressure on the parties to either make a move or stay put. But as long as exploratory mandates keep being handed out for several weeks at a time, nothing will happen."
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Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar felt Andersson had given up too easily.
"I think so, yes," she remarked, adding that she was unimpressed by how little progress the Social Democrat leader had made during the exploratory phase.
"She had plenty of days at her disposal and failed to move the process forward, in my view," Dadgostar said, accusing the Centre Party of being the root cause of the centre-left bloc's coalition headaches.
"The core issue is that the Centre Party cannot bring itself to choose which majority it belongs to," she added.
The Centre Party supports Andersson as prime minister, but refuses to support any government in which the Left Party holds ministerial positions. The Left Party, on the other hand, has pledged to bring down any government that does not include Left Party ministers.
It's not looking much brighter for Kristersson. His side does not hold enough seats unless he manages to get the Centre Party to re-join the centre-right bloc. The Centre Party, however, refuses to work with the Sweden Democrats. (TT/The Local)
Swedish vocabulary: a task – ett uppdrag
Moderates surge in poll as tactical voters return from Liberals
Support for the Moderates is rising as the party's lead over the Sweden Democrats widens, according to the first post-election poll, conducted by DN/Ipsos.
The conservative Moderates' lead over the Sweden Democrats has stretched to five percentage points, marking the biggest increase seen in eight years. Support for the Moderates now stands at 22 percent, up from 19.9 percent on election day. The Sweden Democrats is polling at 17 percent, down slightly from 17.5 percent in the election.
At the same time, the Liberals have slipped back to 4 percent, dropping from 5.3 percent in the election.
According to Nicklas Källebring, an opinion analyst at Ipsos, the decline in support for the Liberals has directly contributed to the Moderates' gains.
"They [the Liberals] have only retained roughly two-thirds of those who voted for the party in the election, losing the highest number to the Moderates," he explained. "It's clear that tactical voters are returning home."
On the centre-left side of the political spectrum, voter support remains largely unchanged.
Ipsos interviewed 1,694 eligible voters between September 15th and September 27th. (TT/The Local)
Swedish vocabulary: a tactical voter – en stödröstare
Volvo Cars freezes global hiring for most white-collar positions
Car manufacturer Volvo Cars has introduced a global hiring freeze for white-collar staff across most departments, Göteborgs-Posten and Dagens industri report.
The newspapers refer to internal documents leaked to industry media.
"We are exercising greater restraint regarding both recruitment and external costs," Volvo Cars press chief Kristin Boldemann Wester wrote in a statement to Dagens industri
The hiring freeze reportedly does not apply to office staff at factories, or planned recruitment for roles supporting production facilities, central distribution, or market and supply-chain logistics.
"Recruitment for roles supporting our production plants, central distribution centre, as well as market and supply logistics, will continue as planned," Boldemann Wester told Göteborgs-Posten. (TT/The Local)
Swedish vocabulary: a hiring freeze – ett anställningsstopp
Western Sweden set for late summer surge with temperatures up to 22C
Temperatures along the west coast of Sweden could reach as high as 22C today.
"That's a few degrees warmer than normal," Amanda Bengtsson, a meteorologist at Sweden's national weather agency, SMHI, told TT.
A high-pressure system to the east and a low-pressure system to the west are driving a southerly airstream of warm air over the west coast on Wednesday, according to SMHI's forecast.
"This warm spell, with temperatures just above 20C in places, will stick around until Thursday. After that, things will turn a bit cooler for the weekend."
Slightly lower temperatures are expected across the rest of Sweden, though conditions remain unusually mild for the time of year.
Meanwhile, most of northern Sweden has already entered meteorological autumn – defined as five consecutive days with an average daily temperature below 10C.
"Yes, autumn is well under way across large parts of the northern half of the country, although there are still a few spots up north where it hasn't quite arrived yet," said Bengtsson. "Daytime temperatures are still fairly warm." (TT/The Local)
Swedish vocabulary: autumn – höst
Swedish road bridge shifts 50 centimetres following heavy load incident
The Strömsund Bridge along the E45 road in northern Sweden has been completely closed following an accident involving a heavy transport vehicle.
The newly renovated bridge has shifted sideways and risen 50 centimetres.
"Absolutely no one is allowed up on it," Joakim Kastemyr of the emergency services told the Aftonbladet newspaper.
The bridge will remain closed for some time due to the extent of the damage, according to the Swedish Transport Administration, with traffic being diverted away from the E45.
"It's going to take time to turn this back into a bridge again. You can see from the pictures that it has been severely impacted," Kastemyr told Aftonbladet.
Emergency services were alerted at around 11.30pm on Tuesday when a heavy special transport vehicle was driving across the bridge. The driver was able to exit the vehicle and safely get off the bridge, but the vehicle remains stranded there, according to Aftonbladet.
The 70-year-old Strömsund Bridge has undergone several stages of renovation over the past five years, partly to improve its capacity to handle heavy transport. Following the upgrades, vehicles weighing up to 74 tonnes were permitted to drive across the 332-metre-long bridge. (TT/The Local)
Swedish vocabulary: shifted sideways – förflyttats i sidled
Swedish train tickets for Christmas and New Year travel go on sale
Sweden's state-owned train operator SJ is set to release its Christmas tickets at 9am today.
Demand is expected to be off the charts, so don't delay booking your tickets for this winter.
Because SJ uses dynamic pricing, popular journeys quickly become more expensive.
"Services will probably sell out fairly quickly, so the trick here is to get in early and not wait until three days before you travel," SJ commercial director Sofie Struwe told the Göteborgs-Posten newspaper. (The Local)
Swedish vocabulary: a ticket – en biljett