Swedish conservative Ulf Kristersson secured parliamentary backing as prime minister on Monday with the votes of his new three-way coalition and, for the first time, allies in the far-right populist Sweden Democrats (SD).
With the support of 176 MPs to 173, the 58-year-old will be sworn in by King Carl XVI Gustaf on Tuesday morning and then inform the Riksdag parliament of his priorities of his centre-right administration.
After an election dominated by asylum policy and soaring gangland shootings, the coalition agreement signed on Friday promises to “limit the rights of asylum seekers as far as is legally possible” and deport foreign-national “criminals” who have yet to be “convicted of a crime”.
While Sweden’s centre-left opposition has described the agreement as the beginning of the end of open Swedish society, Mr Kristersson told reporters he felt “humbled” that Swedish voters had embraced his alliance as a political corrective.
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“We sought a mandate for change during the recent election campaign because we felt it was necessary, and now that change is possible,” said Mr Kristersson, whose Moderates placed third in September’s general election.
A lean former gymnast with trademark horn-rimmed glasses, Mr Kristersson sold himself to voters last month as a conservative realist, ready to fix the results of two terms of left-wing naivete that had left Sweden’s crime rate and energy bills soaring. His campaign refrain, which struck a chord with voters: “A Sweden that doesn’t work has become the new normal.”
He was born in the southern Swedish city of Lund in 1963 and became interested in politics while in secondary school. He took over the youth wing of the local Moderates, rose quickly through party ranks and was elected to parliament in 1994.
A trained economist and married father of three, his Moderates’ three-way minority coalition with the smaller Liberals and Christian Democrats will draw on support from the opposition SD.
Even before taking office, Mr Kristersson has faced huge political pushback for reversing his 2018 pledge never to rule with the SD, given its extremist, neo-Nazi roots.
The party moderated its political message and demands in the recent election campaign, finished in second place and pushed for seats at cabinet.
Though it ended talks outside government, SD civil servants will be placed in all government departments while senior SD leaders will meet coalition members for regulator consultations.
‘Paradigm shift’
Even with no SD ministers in the cabinet Mr Kristersson unveils on Tuesday, debate is raging over how much — or how little — power the populist party will have over government policy from the opposition benches.
Critics see SD fingerprints all over the coalition agreement, which is peppered with proposals to tackle organised crime and references to “utlänningar” — foreigners.
Some fear a hardening attitude and to foreign-nationals — already audible in political election rhetoric — is now on its way to becoming official policy and the new normal in liberal Sweden.
For Annie Lööf, leader of the opposition Centre Party, accepting SD support has triggered a “paradigm shift” in Sweden, “handing the keys of government offices to a xenophobic, nationalist party”.
Other observers point out how the agreement is filled with aspirational proposals to be discussed by open-ended political inquiries, or “utredning”. All coalition parties have a right to veto proposals emerging from these inquiries — creating a balancing act between the new government’s political ambition and stability.
With just a two-seat majority, Mr Kristersson’s Liberal coalition partners are already calling into question the programme for government; political analysts see another instability factor given a history of political defections from the scandal-prone SD.
“This could become a problem in the future, as the government majority is so small,” said Prof Andrej Kokkonen, political scientist at the University of Gothenburg.
“I think Kristersson saw this as an opportunity to implement tough policies on immigration and crime that he wanted anyway. The Liberals don’t like the policies thus it is easy to blame it on the SD.”
It remains to be seen how much of its agenda the SD can push through — and how radical it will prove to be in the end. Among its more controversial law-and-order policies involve increased used of surveillance cameras, police stop-and-search zones and anonymous court witnesses.
“Many of the suggested policies are commonplace in other countries in Europe, but you really don’t get that impression when following the Swedish debate,” said Mr Kokonnen. “That does not mean that the SD is not far-right. As long as there are three other parties in the coalition, however, they will have to compromise.”
