This post is also available in: Spanish

The Swedish Prime Minister has now officially called off the planned snap election originally set for March, 2015. The snap election, which came from a cabinet crisis after the September elections, would have been the first snap election in Sweden for over half a century.

The past month has been a tumultuous one for the Swedish Pirate Party. In early December, long-standing party leader Anna Troberg stated that she would not be running for re-election in 2015. Only a few days later, the opposition’s budget prevailed over the government’s budget in the parliament for the first time in modern history, and as a result Prime Minister Stefan Löfven declared that a snap election would be held on 22 March 2015. For the Swedish Pirates, this meant an unplanned extra election while still recovering from the European, national, regional and local elections in what has been known in media as the “Super Election Year”.

The Pirate Party board said in a statement:

The last month has been both surprising and pleasing in that we’ve got to see what Pirates truly are made of. There have been a number of opinion pieces, planned activities, new campaign literature and plenty of discussions, both on Facebook, in our member forums, and AFK. And it has all been totally spontaneous – it shows us once and for all what amazing activists we have, and that the swarm is alive.

On 27 December, the government parties (the Social Democrats and the Greens) and the opposition (the centre-right Alliance) held a joint press conference revealing a new agreement, which effectively called off the planned snap election. According to the new agreement, the minority will allow the majority to elect their Prime Minister and pass their budget without interference.

The agreement, known as the December Agreement (Decemberöverenskommelsen) has been heavily criticised in the media, largely claiming that the opposition is aiding the government. Representatives of the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats have criticised the agreement as a way to exclude their influence and to form a one-party state.

The next elections are set for September, 2018, and the Swedish Pirates are already planning.

If we are to have a single New Year’s resolution as a party, it is to keep feeding this flame of activism, to keep it burning for a massive election victory in 2018.

Featured image: Minister of Finance Magdalena Andersson presents the government budget for the parliament. CC BY-SA FrankieF.

About Anton Nordenfur

I’m party organiser for the Swedish Pirate Party, and work as a freelancing writer and translator. I’m primarily interested in research politics and LGBTQ rights, and blog in Swedish over at antonnordenfur.com.

 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

 

This post is also available in: SpanishThe Swedish Prime Minister has now officially called off the planned snap election originally set for March, 2015. The snap election, which came from a…