2018
Left bloc · S+MPElection deadlock, Greta Thunberg's climate strike, and forest fires.
2018 infographic: deadlock, climate strike, and fires
AI-generated infographic using the page's 2018 anchors.
Highlights
- Four-month government crisis: The 9 September election produced a near-even split (144 vs 143 seats between blocs), with Sweden Democrats holding 62 seats as kingmakers. No government was formed until January 2019, an unprecedented 134-day deadlock.
- Greta Thunberg's school strike: On 20 August, 15-year-old Greta Thunberg began sitting outside the Swedish parliament with a handmade 'Skolstrejk för klimatet' sign, igniting the worldwide Fridays for Future movement.
- Deaths of Avicii and Ingvar Kamprad: IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad died in January aged 91, and pioneering DJ and composer Avicii died in April aged 28, both figures representing Swedish cultural and economic influence globally.
Events in this year
2018-2019 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. Crisis 2018-05-04 The 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature is postponed The Swedish Academy announced on 4 May 2018 that the 2018 Literature Prize would be postponed and decided alongside the 2019 laureate. Culture