Sweden: Political Developments and Data in 2021

Abstract

The year 2021 in Sweden contained no elections, but was still very eventful. A lack of government stability, observable in earlier years, became increasingly apparent. There was a successful vote of no-confidence against the Social Democratic Party (Socialdemokraterna)/Green Party (Miljöpartiet de gröna) minority coalition in late June, but the same government was reinstated 16 days later. In early November the Social Democrats changed leader from Stefan Löfven to Magdalena Andersson. This was followed by a corresponding change of Prime Minister, after a somewhat chaotic chain of events where the government lost a key budget vote and the Greens left the government. Andersson thus became Sweden's first-ever female Prime Minister, in charge of a single-party Social Democratic minority government. The Greens changed female spokesperson in January. There were no institutional changes.