More expensive bus journeys and petrol await when the government imposes a toothless budget

Despite the fact that almost two months have passed since election day, Sweden has not yet received a new government. This means that there is also no one who can put together a new budget proposal for next year. The country is currently governed by a transitional government that has little opportunity to take any initiatives that affect the kingdom's finances.

Therefore, it will be a transitional budget that Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson will present on Thursday, November 12.

- It is not an ordinary budget bill with new policies. It's about making Sweden work, said Elisabeth Svantesson in connection with her recent presentation of the principles for a transitional budget.

The starting point for such a budget is that the appropriations will be the same as in the latest budget bill. Some automatic accruals will be made, for example for pensions and sickness benefits, while those that require active political decisions will in most cases be frozen at the 2026 level.

There is a rubbery paragraph here that the government can use to still count certain grants. Because even if a transitional government should not make any decisions that are politically controversial, there are areas where the parties can agree. More money for defense is one such example, and it has been discussed to, for example, also allow various infrastructure projects and the Correctional Service to receive increased funding.

However, what cannot be done about are temporary investments. Fuel taxes, bus cards and electricity bills are areas where the Tidö government has stepped in with temporary measures to lower household costs. It's possible that none of this would have been extended anyway, but now there isn't even a theoretical possibility of doing so. It will thus become more expensive to live for many citizens.

Due to the sluggish government formation, the parties on the red-green side have accepted that there is no time to negotiate a joint budget, despite the fact that S, C, V and MP have 176 mandates against the Tidö parties' 173.

All the red-green parties have said, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, that they will vote on the transitional budget when the Riksdag goes to the vote. The center party will present its own budget motion but in a final round of voting still vote for the transitional budget to prevent the parties on the right from being able to get their own proposal through.

- It is a natural neutral alternative while waiting for a political budget, C's economic policy spokesperson Martin Ådahl told DN.

The plan for the red-greens is to first let a transitional budget go through to secure the most basic social functions. Then the parties - if they manage to form a government together - can come back with different amendment budgets in which they can put their own political bets.

- There is an opportunity for a newly appointed government to lay down an extra amendment budget and make major changes, the Social Democrats' economic policy spokesperson Mikael Damberg has said.

After the 2018 election, the Moderates and the Christian Democrats presented a joint budget proposal at the same time that the Social Democrats were in a transitional government. The proposal received a majority in the Riksdag and the incoming S government was forced to partially govern with a M/KD budget during the first year.

M has not yet decided whether the party will try to gather the parties on the Tidö side behind a joint budget proposal this time.