Election 14 September 2014
On 14 September 2014 Sweden's center-left coalition – comprised of the Social Democrats, the Greens and the Left party – won at least 43.7 percent of the vote. Social Democrat leader Stefan Loefven was expected to form a new government after Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's center-right alliance only won 39.7 percent of the vote, a major blow to the government which had been in power for eight years. A new left-leaning party, the Feminist Initiative, cleared the 4.0 percent threshold to enter parliament. The far-right Sweden Democrats won at least 13 percent of the vote, a major leap from its 5.7 percent in 2010.
Formerly the head of one of the country's most powerful unions, IF Metall, Stefan Löfven was persuaded to stand for leadership following record-low poll ratings for the Social Democrats in 2012 and led the party to victory in the parliamentary elections two years later. Lofven, who worked for nearly two decades as a welder in the defense industry, started his career as a welder after growing up with an adoptive family in Örnsköldsvik, a small industrial town in northern Sweden.
Sweden's new prime minister Stefan said 03 December 2014 he would call new elections for March next year. The announcement from Sweden's Social Democrat prime minister, Stefan Lofven, came within just two months of his being in office. It followed a decision by lawmakers to reject his center-left government's first budget proposal.
Löfven hit the headlines worldwide when he called a snap election after his party's budget was blocked in parliament in late 2014. Lofven called the new elections for March 22, 2015.
The political crisis was sparked after the unaligned anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, who hold the balance of power, effectively blocked the budget while vowing to oppose any finance bill unless the country tightened its asylum policy. The move to rebel against the budget proposal was considered a major political breakthrough for the party, which became the country's third-largest group in parliament in the September general election. The aim of toppling Lofven's coalition came to fruition as 182 lawmakers voted against the proposed budget, with 153 in favor.
The election was cancelled after his center-left coalition struck a deal – the December Agreement – with the centre-right Alliance parties. Swedish PM Stefan Lofven said 27 December 2014 his government had struck a deal with the opposition. This would allow the minority coalition of the Social Democrats and Greens to continue to stay in power, sidelining the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats who held the balance of power in parliament. "This agreement means that Sweden can be governed even in a difficult parliamentary situation," said Lofven, who had planned to call a vote for March 22 after losing a budget vote in December.
The deal, which would last until 2022, meant that whichever of the six major parties are in opposition will promise not to block the government's budget. It implied that Löfven can continue to rule in coalition with the Greens, and that that the four-party center-right opposition, the Alliance, will not oppose the coalition's budget in a new vote. The major parties also agreed to discuss further changes to immigration policy, defense and pensions.
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