There is also a shortage of houses – in particular the problem of rents – at the basis of the resignation announced on Sunday by Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, who will leave the leadership of the Social Democratic Party and, after seven years, of the country in November.
In fact, in June the prime minister had been disheartened by Parliament over a plan of partial liberalization of the rental market which had deprived his minority government (Social Democrats and Greens) from the external support of the Left; in July he was back in the saddle, in fact due to the lack of an alternative, given that the leader of the Moderates, the main opposition force, had failed to forge a coalition with enough votes to create a new government.
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Löfven’s announcement and the political framework
On Sunday, however, the announcement of the former trade unionist arrived: “In the electoral campaign next year (in Sweden the political elections are scheduled for September 2022, ed) – said Löfven – the Social Democrats will be led by someone else ». “Everything ends and I want to put my successor in the best conditions,” he added, specifying that he will resign at the party congress in November.
At the base of Löfven’s decision there is in all probability the acknowledgment that a season has ended; the Social Democrats have dominated Swedish politics for generations, but support for them (as for many European center-left parties) has gradually dwindled, forcing the prime minister to seek difficult compromises to carry out the mandate.
In the Scandinavian country, the growth of the Swedish Democrats, a populist right-wing anti-immigration party hitherto kept out of the control room, has made it almost impossible to form government majorities. Löfven’s successor (or his heir: among the most quoted names are that of the current Minister of Finance Magdalena Andersson and that of the owner of Health, Lena Hallengren, who would be – if confirmed later by Parliament – the first female prime minister in Sweden) will therefore not have an easy task, starting with the approval of the budget.