Magdalena Andersson has just received the speaker's assignment to probe the possibilities for forming a new government. However, she has not been given a deadline for when the assignment must be reported, it will be up to the next Speaker to decide how long she can stay on.
On Monday, September 28, the Riksdag will decide who will be speaker for the coming term and thus also set the time frames for the ongoing government formation process. The Social Democrats' point of departure is that the largest party should have the position of speaker, but has not yet nominated a candidate. The nomination is expected to come shortly, and then Andreas Norlén's days are likely to be counted by the Speaker. The vote will be a first test of whether the four parties on Magdalena Andersson's side can agree on a speaker candidate.
On the same day, it is also the start of school for the newly elected members of the Riksdag. In traditional fashion, the officials of the Riksdag read out each name in the chamber and the person concerned must answer in the affirmative to mark their presence. Approximately one third of the members are new compared to the previous term.
On Tuesday, September 29, the opening of the Riksdömt takes place, with all that pomp and circumstance and invited guests of honor. But since there is no new government in place, there is also no new prime minister who can read out his government declaration. Therefore, the opening of the Riksdag becomes a more ceremonial exercise, where the most exciting thing that happens is that King Carl Gustaf gives a speech to the members of the Riksdag, who then get to go and mingle in the Riksdag's connecting track.
On Tuesday 6 October, a decision will be made in the chamber about which members will sit in which committees and in the EU committee. The distribution of the committee seats is primarily done through internal processes in each party, but a cartel between S, V, C and MP has also been formed to coordinate the various seats. There will also be negotiations between the parties about who will be chairman and vice-chairman of each committee. Those people are then formally appointed by the respective committees, probably on the same day as the vote in the House.
Thursday 12 November is perhaps the most fateful date of the autumn. Then a new government must submit its proposal for a state budget to the Riksdag at the latest, otherwise it opens the door for the parties on the right to get their budget proposal through instead. It happened after the 2018 election when the formation of the government dragged on and the opposition at the time supported a budget signed by M+KD. A painful setback for the then Minister of Finance Magdalena Andersson, who was then in a transitional government and could not do anything about it.
In order for the same thing to happen again this year, the Moderates probably need to take the initiative to gather the Tidö parties behind a common budget. According to DN's information, M has not yet decided whether the party will try to gather the others or come forward with its own budget proposal. The reason is that after the election loss, there is a desire within M to more clearly mark what their own party stands for, but the question is whether that desire ultimately trumps the desire to give the Social Democrats a slap on the nose.
If the parties on the right decide to try to get a joint budget through, it will largely be based on the latest state budget that was submitted to the Riksdag barely a year ago. The difference is that there are a few individual proposals with a clear stamp from each party. A low oddsr is, for example, that M would in that case propose an additional employment tax deduction.
If the formation of the government is not completed in time, the red-green parties face a dilemma. Should they take a chance that the Tidö parties cannot rally behind a budget or try to find a way to stop such a proposal? According to DN's information, the Social Democrats' goal in that case is to try to unite behind a transitional budget, that is, the latest state budget that is supplemented with various index calculations. If the four red-green parties vote for the transitional budget, it would prevent the right-wing side from getting their proposal through and also open up the possibility of coming back with joint policies in an amendment budget later on. If they agree on a government document, that is.
