On Friday, Mr. Ulf Kristersson, the leader of the Swedish center-right coalition, announced the agreement between the four coalition parties that will serve as a platform for his new government. At a press conference, Kristersson explained:
We received a mission from the Swedish people on election day, [and] we take this very seriously. This means that we feel that change is not only necessary, but possible. We can offer that.
The new government will consist of three of the four parties in the center-right coalition: the moderates, which is led by Kristersson, as well as the Christian democrats and the liberals. The biggest party in the coalition, the nationalist conservative Swedish democrats, will not get cabinet positions but will have policy experts working inside the new prime minister’s office.
The Swedish democrats were kept out of the cabinet in a compromise where the small liberal party refused to support a new cabinet with Swedish-democrat ministers. In compensation for no ministerial positions, the Swedish democrats have been granted chairmanships of key parliamentary committees as well as considerable influence over the new government’s policies.
In a 63-page agreement, the center-right coalition puts forward a long list of reforms. In a summary, Samnytt.se reports a number of measures to tighten immigration and reduce crime. The new government is going to stop the practice of giving immediate permanent residence visas to asylum seekers and other immigrants. The quota of UN-defined refugees will be lowered from 6,400 to 900 per year, and asylum seekers will be processed at transit centers abroad, instead of at the Swedish border.
The new government intends to reduce crime by copying a Danish law, according to which prison sentences are doubled if the perpetrator is a gang member. There are also proposals to reduce taxes and improve energy production through the expansion of nuclear power.
Ulf Kristersson is scheduled for a vote of approval in the Swedish parliament on Monday.
