And the baton goes to the next runner up

It’s an Indian Summer day here on the 64th latitude. Sun and mild winds from the south. I even have the balcony door open a tiny bit. A day inviting picking mushrooms and taking care of those last left overs from the garden. Withered summer flowers hiding in a corner. Turning the water barrel upside-down before the snow comes. Seasons changing.

To be continued, I wrote last Sunday. Regarding forming a new government in Sweden. It’s been more than a month now since the general election. And today, this minute, the situation is as unclear as it was when I tucked myself in in Bolsena, Italy, on election night.

http://homeisawayawayishome.blogspot.com/2018/09/in-fear-of-tomorrow.html

http://homeisawayawayishome.blogspot.com/2018/09/a-moment-of-decency-in-swedish-and.html

http://homeisawayawayishome.blogspot.com/2018/10/a-week-of-win-and-losses.html

For two weeks now the Right bloc leader Ulf Kristersson has tried to form government, assigned by the Parliament Speaker to do so. He failed. That he declared to the Speaker today. It also looks now like the Right bloc is falling apart.

So, what happens now? Well, tomorrow the Speaker will go one more round with the leaders of all eight parties. He will most certainly pass the baton to form government to Stefan Löfven, leader of the Social Democrats. After all, he is the chair of the largest party. He would be the next runner up. But will his chances to succeed be higher?

Probably not, as Prime Minister Stefan Löfven lost the vote of no confidence against him and his cabinet right after the election.

I would say the situation is even more locked today than a week ago. Now the Right block is more or less divided into two. And when it comes to talking to each other between the eight parties, those talks are conditional on restrictions they are all putting up, and the tone of conversation keeps getting more high pitched and harsh by the day.

Experts are shaking their heads. Pundits are nodding. No one can see an end to this in the near future. What happened to the famous Swedish consensus? Gone out the roof with all other loud politics of the world? 

And what happened to truth? The result of the election was 144 seats in the Parliament to the Left bloc and 143 to the Right. Simple and straight forward math. In spite of that the Right announced themselves winners, without a plan to form government. That worked well, right?

Yes, those 144 seats include the Left Party which has not had seats in the present government although backed it. The government has been a minority government. Which is not ideal of course, often the case though.

But tomorrow is another day. Will Stefan Löfven try to win the Centre Party over? The Liberals? To be continued…

PS. I am really looking forward to a different topic than politics in this forum. And there will be. A heads up for the risk (yes, I refuse calling it chance) of abolishing Savings Time. Wait, is that politics as well?