“The three most important things. The five challenges. The top ten…” The lists of problems and places where the government “must act” are multiplying and they cover a lot of different areas.
The number one
The biggest challenge for Kristersson will, perhaps, just be keeping his government together. As outlined in this previous blog post, the divisions between the Liberal party and the Sweden Democrats party are numerous and fundamental. Despite this – or because of this – the Liberal party was granted a whole five minister positions in the Kristersson government. This is hitting rather above their weight (they received only 4.7% of the popular vote in the election), but Kristersson cannot afford a revolt by Liberal party members. They are sorely needed to make up the right constellation’s majority in the parliament. Of course, the same goes for the Sweden Democrats. Kristersson can’t afford to lose them to the opposition either, and it’s a coin toss as to which of the two parties might bolt. Keeping them happy for the next several years is going to be incredibly challenging on several fronts.
Learning to play nice
As was to be expected, two elected representatives of SD have already caused controversy in the last week. Rebecka Fallenkvist made a splash with her completely inappropriate comments on Anne Frank’s sexuality, and Elsa Widding stated during a parliamentary session that there was no scientific basis for climate change. Rebecka Fallenkvist, by the way, is the same person that shouted “helg seger” on election night – an obvious Nazi reference that she wasn’t able to find a convincing excuse for.
The Liberal party, meanwhile, had trouble getting their heads around cooperating with the Sweden Democrats even before these latest mic drops. A not insignificant percentage is entirely opposed to the ongoing effort to fit in. Party leader Johan Pehrson’s new position as Minister for Labor Market and Integration is an effort to give the Liberal party a serious say in decisions regarding integration, a subject they have been interested in for a long time. For example, a language requirement for citizenship was something the Liberal party was in favor of already twenty years ago. It was later shot down as being culturally bigoted. Their upcoming national meeting in late November will likely be difficult and interesting, especially if certain Sweden Democrats keep airing their thoughts in public.
Kristersson has also another big group to keep happy. They have been fed visions of tax cuts, nuclear power and, in the here and now, compensation for high energy prices. This group will be even harder to satisfy.
Promises, promises…
Despite pre-election promises, there are very few that really believe tax cuts are possible anymore. Sweden’s economic challenges are well documented, also in this blog. An economic slump of unknown length looms large in basically all prognoses. This means saving pennies wherever they can be found, but at the same time spending to keep businesses in business and families from freezing and being hungry this winter. There is some money in the state bank – some say 20-30 billion kronor due to a Swedish praxis of saving a certain amount every business cycle – but spending it injudiciously will make inflation worse. It will be up to Elisabeth Svantesson, the new Minister of Finance from the Moderate party, to make that call.
For the moment, there are two dates to mark on the calendar. On November 8th, the budget is presented, and on November 15th, the state-owned Swedish power authority (Svenska Kraftnät) is due to present their ideas on where to find the wherewithal to compensate Swedish households for high electricity prices. Both of these things will illuminate the road that Kristersson’s government, and the rest of us, will be traveling, as well as on what problems and places they will be acting.