An hour ago, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Loefven failed to get enough government votes to support his latest budget, despite threats he may resign if the budget did not win majority support. This follows after Sweden's Democrats, the third-largest party, "plunged the Nordic nation into a crisis [4]" yesterday after vowing to oppose any government budget that promoted immigration. Loefven, 57, in late night talks with the four-party Alliance opposition was then unable to reach any agreement on a way forward for his budget of tax increases and higher welfare spending.
Cited by Bloomberg, Loefven said that “There was no will to have a dialog on the budget issue" - which sounds about as "compromising" as Barack Obama. He may now go down in history as Sweden’s shortest-serving premier in about 80 years, having taken control in September elections. The coalition’s proposal was rejected in a formal vote today in parliament, as the Sweden Democrats voted for the Alliance budget.
The former union boss led the Social Democrats back into power by ousting Fredrik Reinfeldt’s center-right coalition in September elections. The premier said last night he will also explore the option of resubmitting his budget to the finance committee in parliament. Another option is for snap elections to be called for the first time since 1958.
While for now Loefven has not resigned, the latter option is precisely what he picked. Follow the key BBG headlines from a just concluded press briefing by the prime minister:
- SWEDISH PM LOEFVEN SAYS SWEDEN IN SERIOUS SITUATION
- SWEDISH PM LOEFVEN SAYS WON'T ACCEPT NEW POLITICAL SITUATION
- SWEDISH PRIME MINISTER LOEFVEN CALLS FOR NEW ELECTION IN 2015
- SWEDISH PM SAYS NEW ELECTION TO BE HELD ON MARCH 22
- SWEDISH GOVT: WILL NEVER ALLOW SWEDEN DEMS TO DICTATE RULES
- SWEDISH PM LOEFVEN WON'T SEEK ANY FURTHER TALKS WITH OPPOSITION
and last but not least:
- SWEDISH PM LOEFVEN SAYS WILL CONTINUE TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY
How idealistic. We give him a few days before he too succumbs to the siren song of "Get to work Mr. Chairman", the same song that has made a complete mockery out of America's own legislative branch.