2019
Left bloc · S+MPThe January Agreement ends the deadlock and Greta goes global.
2019 infographic: agreement, climate, and culture
AI-generated infographic using the page's 2019 anchors.
Highlights
- January Agreement: On 18 January, Stefan Löfven was re-elected Prime Minister under a 73-point pact between four parties (Social Democrats, Greens, Centre, and Liberals), deliberately structured to isolate the Sweden Democrats.
- Greta Thunberg's global breakthrough: Thunberg sailed across the Atlantic in August, addressed the US Congress and the UN Climate Summit, and was named Time magazine's Person of the Year, making Sweden a focal point of the global climate debate.
- Death of Marie Fredriksson: Roxette vocalist Marie Fredriksson died on 9 December aged 61, mourned worldwide as one of Sweden's most internationally successful musicians.
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 2019-01-01 The Sweden Democrats drop their EU referendum demand (2019) In January 2019 the Sweden Democrats dropped their demand for a referendum on leaving the EU. The party said it would now try to change the union from the inside instead. Foreign policy 2019-01-11 January Agreement 2019 (Januariavtalet) On 11 January 2019 the Social Democrats, Greens, Centerpartiet and Liberalerna signed a 73-point policy programme, the Januariavtalet, which let Stefan Löfven return as PM in exchange for liberal economic reforms (labour-market deregulation, market rents on new apartments, school choice) and the explicit exclusion of the Sweden Democrats and the Left Party from policy influence. Reform