WIREDGOV

The majority of Swedes have historically been pro-EU membership. With the European Parliament elections approaching, Open Europe’s Marcus Cadier assesses the prospects for Swedish Euroscepticism.  While mainstream political parties are in favour of Sweden remaining in the EU, there is a spectrum of opinions on the direction of the EU.

The Swedish general election in September last year resulted in a hung parliament. What followed was a period (131 days) of relative political disorder, which finally resulted in the Social Democratic party leader Stefan Löfven being re-elected by MPs as Prime minister on the 18th of January. This came as a result of the Left Party (Vänsterpartiet) as well as the two Liberal parties The Centre Party (Centerpartiet) and The Liberals (Liberalerna) abstaining in the vote. The latter parties have previously been in a cooperation with the right of centre party The Moderates (Nya Moderaterna) as well as The Christian Democrats (Kristdemokraterna) whose joint Prime Minister candidate Ulf Kristersson came from the former. The Centre Party and The Liberal Party chose not to vote for Kristersson since he would likely be elected with the support of the Eurosceptic, anti-immigration Sweden Democrat (Sverigedemokraterna) MPs, who were the Kingmakers – fearing that they would gain increased influence over politics as a consequence.

See Open Europe’s website for full article