2018–2019 Government Formation Crisis
The 9 September 2018 election produced a deadlocked Riksdag with the Sweden Democrats at 17.5 %, and it took 134 days — the longest formation process in Swedish democratic history — for Stefan Löfven to be re-elected PM on the basis of the January Agreement, after which Centerpartiet and Liberalerna chose to cross the bloc line and shatter the Alliance.
- Correction Welfare & identity KD In 2019 the Christian Democrats dropped their refusal to deal with the Sweden Democrats: the party board opened to talks with all Riksdag parties in March, and by December Busch Thor said KD was prepared to negotiate with SD on any issue.
Why this verdict?
KD's stated position had been refusal to negotiate with SD. In March 2019 the KD board voted to open talks with all Riksdag parties including SD; by December Ebba Busch Thor said KD was prepared to negotiate with SD on any issue. Board decision plus public statement before any cooperation began — correction.
- Correction Welfare & identity M Ulf Kristersson, who in January 2018 said he would not speak with or work alongside the Sweden Democrats, held his first meeting with Jimmie Åkesson in December 2019 and said he wanted the Moderates to cooperate with SD in parliament.
Why this verdict?
Kristersson had explicitly said in January 2018 he would not speak with or work alongside SD. In December 2019 he publicly reversed this: he met Åkesson and stated M wanted to cooperate with SD in parliament. The new position was declared before the 2022 election, giving voters the chance to respond. Correction.
The 9 September 2018 Riksdag election produced no majority for either bloc. The Sweden Democrats grew to 17.5 % and were not acceptable as formal partners to either side. Stefan Löfven was voted out by the new chamber on 25 September but stayed on as caretaker PM. What followed was the longest government formation process in Swedish democratic history: 134 days, four failed talmansrundor, and one rejected PM proposal.
The decisive failure was Speaker Andreas Norlén’s nomination of Moderate leader Ulf Kristersson in November 2018, which the Riksdag rejected 195 to 154. Annie Lööf (C) and Jan Björklund (L) refused to back any government that would in practice need SD support. That refusal — by two centre-right parties — is the operational moment when the Alliance dissolved as a coordinated four-party formation.
The crisis ended on 18 January 2019 when Löfven was re-elected PM, 115 in favour, 153 against and 77 abstaining, on the basis of the freshly signed January Agreement with C and L. Löfven II was sworn in three days later. The arithmetic that produced the deadlock was unchanged; only the compatibility map had been redrawn — and only until the 2021 Midsummer crisis.
Related entities
On the values timeline
- 2006Economy · Reinvented as "the New Moderates", accepting the welfare state to win the centre.
- 2009Security & defence · The Moderates led the 2009 decision to suspend peacetime military conscription and move Sweden to a volunteer professional army.
- 2015Migration · After the 2014 election loss and the 2015 refugee crisis, the Moderates under Anna Kinberg Batra broke with Reinfeldt's 'open your hearts' line and adopted a markedly more restrictive migration policy: border controls, temporary residence permits, tighter family reunification and benefit cuts.
- you are here2019Welfare & identity · Ulf Kristersson, who in January 2018 said he would not speak with or work alongside the Sweden Democrats, held his first meeting with Jimmie Åkesson in December 2019 and said he wanted the Moderates to cooperate with SD in parliament.
- 2022Welfare & identity · In October 2022 the Moderates signed the Tidö Agreement, forming a government that depends on the Sweden Democrats they had once refused to deal with.
- 2009Energy · Once a champion of phasing out nuclear power, the Christian Democrats joined the 2009 Alliance government deal to scrap the ban on building new reactors.
- 2015Security & defence · At its 2015 riksting the Christian Democrats broke with Sweden's non-alignment line and decided to back applying for NATO membership, becoming the fourth Alliance party to do so.
- 2015Welfare & identity · Walked out of the cross-bloc pact built to contain the Sweden Democrats — the first crack in the wall.
- you are here2019Welfare & identity · In 2019 the Christian Democrats dropped their refusal to deal with the Sweden Democrats: the party board opened to talks with all Riksdag parties in March, and by December Busch Thor said KD was prepared to negotiate with SD on any issue.
- S1998The Social Democrats helped replace their own ATP defined-benefit pension with a system tied to lifetime earnings and life expectancy, plus individual market-invested premium-pension accounts.
- S2014After losing a budget vote, the Social Democrats brokered a cross-party deal letting the largest bloc's minority government pass its budget while sidelining the Sweden Democrats.
- C2019After years anchoring the centre-right Alliance, the Centre Party crossed the bloc line in 2019 to give a Social Democratic-led government confidence and supply via the 73-point January Agreement, to keep the Sweden Democrats out of influence.