350 European Journal of Political Research Political Data Yearbook 59: 350–361, 2020 doi: 10.1111/2047-8852.12280 Sweden: Political Developments and Data in 2019 ANDERS WIDFELDT University of Aberdeen, UK Introduction Like its predecessor 2018, the political year of 2019 in Swedish politics was historic in several ways. The uniquely protracted government formation process was concluded in January. The Social Democrats/Socialdemokraterna (S)–Green Party/Miljöpartiet de gröna (MP) minority coalition continued in office, but only due to an agreement with the Centre Party/Centerpartiet (C) and Liberals/Liberalerna (L) which involved difficult concessions for the governing parties. This government constellation remained in office throughout the year, but its position was vulnerable with recurring threats of no-confidence votes. The economy showed signs of a slowdown although fiscal stability was maintained. Election report Elections to European Parliament Sweden’s sixth election to the European Parliament (EP) took place on 26 May. The campaign was relatively quiet, certainly in comparison with the parliamentary election eight months earlier. The main themes were the climate, migration, welfare and crime prevention (Blomgren 2019). There was discussion about the balance of power between the European Union (EU) and its member nations, but the Swedish EU membership was not seriously debated. The two most EU-sceptical parties, the Left Party/Vänsterpartiet (V) and the Sweden Democrats/Sverigedemokraterna (SD), no longer demanded a Swedish EU exit. Indeed, a clear majority of the electorate was in favour of continued EU membership. Turnout rose to 55.3 per cent, an increase of 4.2 percentage points compared with 2014, and the highest ever for an EU election in Sweden. Four parties, SD, the Moderate Party/Moderata Samlingspartiet (M), C and the Christian Democrats/Kristdemokraterna (KD), gained one seat each, SD making the biggest gain in votes. S held on to its position as the biggest party,while M and SD ended as the second and third biggest parties, respectively. L and MP made losses, the former keeping its representation in the Parliament by a narrow margin. The Feminist Initiative/Feministiskt initiativ (FI) lost its only seat after one period (Berg and Oscarsson 2019). © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Political Research Political Data Yearbook published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Consortium for Political Research This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2020 The Authors. Table 1. Elections to the European Parliament (Europaparlamentet)inin2019 European Journal of Political Research Political Data Yearbook Date of election 26 May 2019 Previous election 25 May 2014 Electorate 7,576,917 Total seats 20 Total votes cast 4,187,848 Turnout 55.3% Valid votes cast 4,151,470 Share of total vote 99.1% Votes Seats Party EP group N % ࢞% N % ࢞N ࢞% Moderate Party Moderata Samlingspartiet (M) EPP 698,770 16.8% 3.2% 4 20.0% 1 5.0% Centre Party Centerpartiet (C) Renew Europe 447,641 10.8% 4.3% 2 10.0% 1 5.0% SWEDEN Liberalsa Liberalerna (L) Renew Europe 171,419 4.1% −5.8% 1 5.0% −1 −5.0% Christian Democrats Kristdemokraterna (KD) EPP 357,856 8.6% 2.7% 2 10.0% 1 5.0% Social Democrats Socialdemokraterna (S) S&D 974,589 23.5% −0.7% 5 25.0% 0 0.0% Left Party Vänsterpartiet (V) GUE-NGL 282,300 6.8% 0.5% 1 5.0% 0 0.0% Green Partyb Miljöpartiet de gröna (MP) Greens/EFA 478,258 11.5% −3.9% 2 10.0% −210.0% published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Sweden Democrats Sverigedemokraterna (SD) ECR 636,877 15.3% 5.7% 3 15.0% 1 5.0% Feminist Initiative Feministiskt initiativ (FI) None 32,143 0.8% −4.7% 0 0.0% −1 −5.0% Pirate Party Piratpartiet (PP) None 26,526 0.6% −1.6% 0 0.0% 0 0.0% Alternative for Sweden Alternativ för Sverige (AfS) None 19,178 0.5% 0.5% 0 0.0% 0 0.0% Others Övriga partier None 25,913 0.6% −0.1% 0 0.0% 0 0.0% Consortium for Political Research Notes: aPreviously named Folkpartiet Liberalerna (see Political Data Yearbook for Sweden 2015). bOn 1 February 2020, after the exit of the UK, Sweden’s total number of seats increased from 20 to 21. The new seat went to the Green Party. Source: Swedish Election Authority website, https://data.val.se/val/ep2019/. 351 352 ANDERS WIDFELDT Cabinet report As described in the previous issue of the Political Data Yearbook, the government formation process after the 2018 parliamentary election was not concluded by the end of that year. At the beginning of 2019, the Löfven I minority Cabinet, consisting of S and MP, was still in office in a caretaker capacity. Negotiations between S, MP, C and L had begun inlate 2018 and, on 11 January 2019, a four-party agreement was presented that would allow the S-MP government to continue with parliamentary support from C and L (see also Issues in national politics). Key to the Agreement was to keep V and SD from political influence, although only the former party is mentioned explicitly in the Agreement text.For this reason V threatened to vote against Löfven in the vote of investiture, but backed down after a meeting whose exact contents were not made public. The party still maintained a latent threat of future no-confidence motions against the government. Löfven was voted inas Prime Minister on 18 January. S and MP voted for Löfven; M, SD, KD and one C member voted against, while C, V and L abstained. The number of votes against totalled 153, which was more than the votes in favour, but meant that Löfven was accepted as a government is only rejected if more than half of all 349 members (i.e., at least 175) vote against it. The Löfven II minority Cabinet was presented on 21 January. It contained 23 ministers, with the MP representation reduced to five because of its loss in the 2018 election. Six ministers departed, including the MP male spokesperson Gustav Fridolin, who had announced in 2018 that he would step down as joint party leader in May (see Political parties report). The new ministers included Anders Ygeman (S), who came back after leaving in connection with the National Transport Agency scandal in 2017 (see the Political Data Yearbook for that year), and the 70-year-old Hans Dahlgren (S), who has extensive foreign policy experience but had never before served in a Cabinet. The thus concluded government formation process had been the longest in Swedish history, lasting 131 days (Aylott and Bolin 2019). The Cabinet was reshuffled twice during the year. In September, the Minister for Foreign Affairs Margot Wallström and the Minister for Employment Ylva Johansson left the Cabinet. The highly experienced Wallström cited family reasons for stepping down, but there were disagreements about her ideological foreign policy, which included feminism, nuclear disarmament and criticism of Israel. The appointment of Minster for Foreign Trade Ann Linde as Wallström’s successor was interpreted as a step towards a more ‘realpolitik’-oriented approach, although the differences should not be overstated (Eriksson 2019). Linde’s vacated post was taken by the previously unknown Anna Hallberg, whose background was in business and banking. She did not have a political background, becoming a party member of S when joining the Cabinet (Marmorstein 2019). Ylva Johansson left to join the European Commission, where she later took the Home Affairs portfolio. She was replaced by Eva Nordmark, chair of the white-collar union TCO. On 1 October, the Minister for Social Security Annika Strandhäll left for a combination of personal and political reasons. She had suffered a family bereavement, but also received criticism for the removal of the director-general of the Swedish Social Insurance Agency (see also Parliament report). Strandhäll, who returned to her seat in Parliament, was replaced by the Minister for Public Administration Ardalan Shekarabi. His position was filled by Lena Micko, a member of the S party executive and holder of top positions in the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions. © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Political Research Political Data Yearbook published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Consortium for Political Research © 2020 The Authors. Table 2. Cabinet composition of Löfven I in Sweden in 2019 Duration of Cabinet Inception 3 October 2014 Dissolution 21 January 2019 European Journal of Political Research Political Data Yearbook Period covered by table From 1 January 2019 Until 21 January 2019 Type of Cabinet Minority Coalition A. Party/gender composition on 1 January 2019 Seats in Cabinet Seats held by women Seats in Parliament N % N %ofparty N % Social Democrats Socialdemokraterna (S) 17 73.9% 9 52.9% 100 28.6% Green Party Miljöpartiet de gröna (MP) 6 26.1% 3 50.0% 16 4.6% Totals 23 100.0% 12 52.2% 116 33.2% B. Composition of Löfven I Cabinet on 1 January 2019 SWEDEN See previous editions of the Political Data Yearbook for Sweden or http://politicaldatayearbook.com C. Changes in composition of Cabinet during 2019 published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Ministerial title Outgoing minister Outgoing date Incoming minister Comments There were no Cabinet changes in Löven I in 2019. D. Party/gender composition on 21 January 2019 Seats in Cabinet Seats held by women Seats in Parliament N % N %ofparty N % Consortium for Political Research Social Democrats Socialdemokraterna (S) 17 73.9% 9 52.9% 100 28.6% Green Party Miljöpartiet de gröna (MP) 6 26.1% 3 50.0% 16 4.6% Totals 23 100.0% 12 52.2% 116 33.2% Source: Swedish government website www.regeringen.se.