Sweden still does not have a government. The parties remain divided almost four months from the general election.
To try to find a solution, the leaders of the centre-left Social Democrats and centre-right Moderate Party will meet the parliamentary speaker on January 4. They will brief him about any progress made over the Christmas break.
As reported by The Local, the three also spoke directly after Christmas, but a statement from parliamentary speaker Andreas Norlén merely said that he had “taken note of their respective assessments of the process of government formation”.
Party leaders have also remained quiet, giving no hint of what the next government might look like.
Meanwhile, Norlén has already announced January 16 as the date when the next prime ministerial candidate will face a parliamentary vote. But it is not yet clear who this candidate will be.
As noted by The Local, two such votes have already been held, with both incumbent prime minister Stefan Löfven of the Social Democrats and his centre-right counterpart, Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson, failing to gain enough support from parliament.
The most likely scenario is that one of the two will be proposed for the role a second time.
However, if a third vote is unsuccessful, a fourth vote will be held on January 23, Norlén has said. And if neither vote is successful, Sweden will be required to hold a second election.
According to The Local, after the September election left the two main blocs separated by just one seat, one of the big obstacles to forming a government has been how to handle the third largest political group in Sweden, the far-right Sweden Democrats.
