1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites
Live TV
Latest audioLatest videos
In focus
German coalition collapseDonald TrumpCOP29

Swedish PM calls off snap vote

December 27, 2014

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has averted snap elections after reaching a deal with the main opposition alliance, according to Swedish media. The ruling coalition's first budget was voted down earlier this month.

https://p.dw.com/p/1EAZm
Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Löfven (S) and Gustav Fridolin (MP) from the green party - press conference announcing fresh elections in Sweden 22 March 2015, just three months after the election after the coalition government failed to get its budget through parliament amid a political crisis (Photo: Lotte Fernvall / Aftonbladet / IBL Bildbyrå AFTONBLADET / 3226 *** EXPRESSEN OUT ***)
Image: picture alliance/IBL Schweden

The agreement between the ruling coalition and the center-right opposition parties - the Moderates, the Liberals, the Christian Democrats, and the Center Party - would allow Lofven to continue as prime minister but makes it mandatory for the Social Democrats and Greens to pass the opposition-proposed budget in the parliament.

Earlier this month, Lofven had to call a snap vote for March 22 when the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats voted against his budget for 2015, backing an alternative financial bill tabled by the opposition.

"This agreement means that Sweden can be governed even in a difficult parliamentary situation," Lofven said during a press conference in Stockholm on Saturday, adding that a new election was "not topical" any more.

September's general election saw the Sweden Democrats emerge as the third-largest party, which gave the far-right group an upper hand in parliament. The party had intended to turn any snap election into a referendum on the Scandinavian country's flexible immigration policies.

Opinion polls showed the fledgling minority center-left coalition was unlikely to break the political deadlock through fresh elections in March, as neither the center-right parties nor the Social Democrats-Greens alliance was in a position to gain a majority.

shs/se (Reuters, AFP)