Sweden to resume talks on forming a government — The Local Sweden
In Sweden, Riksdag Speaker Andreas Norlén will hold a new round of consultations with party leaders on Wednesday due to a deadlock in government formation. Social Democratic Party leader Magdalena Andersson ended her first attempt to form a centre-left cabinet. After the talks, Norlén is to task one of the party leaders with exploring the possibility of forming a government, The Local Sweden reports.
The speaker has not set a specific deadline for forming a new government. Under Sweden's constitution, he has four attempts to nominate a candidate for prime minister. If parliament rejects all four candidates, the country will have to hold an early election.
Complex negotiations between parties
To form a centre-left government, the Left Party must either drop its demand to join the cabinet, or the Centre Party and the Social Democrats must agree to the participation of its representatives in the government. The next mandate may go to Moderate Coalition Party leader Ulf Kristersson, but his options are also limited.
To form a centre-right government, Kristersson needs the support of the Centre Party. It refuses to switch to his side as long as the Sweden Democrats are part of the supporting coalition. At the same time, Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Åkesson said that the party would not agree to a government that does not include it.
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Prices and mortgage rates
Swedish companies plan to raise prices more actively than usual, according to September's survey by the National Institute of Economic Research. The economic sentiment indicator rose from 105.1 points in August to 107.1 in September, while the consumer confidence index increased from 98.4 to 102.2 points.
State mortgage bank SBAB will also raise rates on fixed-rate loans with terms from one to ten years, while leaving the three-month variable rate unchanged. The one-year rate will rise by 0.10 percentage points, rates for two to seven years by 0.20 points, and the ten-year rate by 0.15 points. The announcement came after the Riksbank signalled that two or three increases in the key rate were possible at the end of the year.
Complaints about election results
More than 15,000 complaints about the results of this year's elections have been submitted to Sweden's Election Review Board. By comparison, after the 2018 election, the body received just over 700 complaints, and after the 2022 election, about 400. Board chair Svante Johansson said that calls to file complaints on online forums had, among other things, contributed to the sharp increase.
The board had previously said that many appeals were likely related to suspicions of violations during voting in Borlänge. The investigation into the case is ongoing, and the suspects have not been officially named. According to Johansson, a significant number of complaints contain no specifics and therefore cannot be investigated.
