Swedish Government Deal Crumbles as Left Party Rejects Accord

(Bloomberg) -- The deal to solve Sweden’s record-long political impasse now looks unlikely to succeed after the Left Party announced it would vote no on making Social Democrat leader Stefan Lofven prime minister.

Left Party leader Jonas Sjostedt announced on Monday that he won’t provide the necessary votes to back the deal, which was agreed on over the weekend by two centrist parties and the Social Democrats and Greens as a way out of Sweden’s political crisis.

Sjostedt said he still wants Lofven to become prime minister, but can’t accept that his party is left with “zero influence” and will seek to find "a solution" in the coming days.

The rejection will send all sides back to the drawing board with the speaker expected to make an announcement later on Monday. The speaker, Andreas Norlen, could still try to force a vote on Lofven on Wednesday as a way of speeding up the process of finding a government after four months of talks.

Lofven’s deal with the Center Party and Liberals included a pledge to freeze out his former allies in the Left Party and a shift in policy to tax cuts that were unpalatable to the former communist party. The bipartisan deal, which broke apart the center-right opposition, was cobbled together to avoid giving influence the nationalist Sweden Democrats.

“This would be the most right-wing Social Democratic government that Sweden has ever had,” Sjostedt said at a press conference in Stockholm.

Lofven at an earlier press conference on Monday tried to soft-pedal the break with his former ally, saying he was still open to negotiations over the next four years with the Left. But he also said that the deal on the table is “negotiated to the bottom” while Center Party leader Annie Loof also emphasized that the current deal can’t be renegotiated.

Voters flocked to the anti-immigration party in September’s election, making it the third-biggest group while handing the Social Democrats their worst result in a century. The conservative Moderates also lost votes, and neither of the two traditional blocs achieved a majority, echoing a broader rise in European populism.

Loof said the deal was the best available under the circumstances. The party’s priorities were to end the stalemate and keep the fringe parties from exerting influence, while advancing more liberal market policies.
Voters are also lukewarm. According to a poll by Demoskop for Expressen newspaper, some 48 percent of Swedes say the deal struck is wrong, while 45 percent are in favor of the agreement.

With 167 seats of a total of 349, the constellation would still be short of a majority in parliament and would need backing from others to get measures through the legislature. But its budgets would still pass since they only need a plurality.

A potential vote on Wednesday would be the the the third prime minister vote held in parliament since the September election, with both Lofven and Moderate leader Ulf Kristersson having lost earlier. There must be four votes before a new election is held, and the speaker, Andreas Norlen, has scheduled a fourth one for Jan. 23 if necessary.

Lofven said on Monday, before the Left’s announcement, that he didn’t see any logical reason to hold a vote on him as prime minister if there’s a majority against him.

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