Around the country, how the municipalities will be governed for the next four years is now being shaped. What is impossible at the national level, for M and S to govern together, is entirely possible locally.
In Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson's home municipality of Strängnäs, the Moderates and the Social Democrats continue to rule together. The two have managed the municipality ever since the 2014 election.
- Our image is that we have received continued strong support from the voters. Not because they want us to do something radically different, but because we have to take care of the municipality in the way that we have done, says municipal board chairman Jacob Högfeldt (M).
The party is strong in Strängnäs, with almost 32 percent. Jacob Högfeldt could have chosen a different collaboration than S.
- There were alternatives, but not ones that we judged had the conditions to take long-term responsibility for the whole of Strängnäs. Parties must be mature enough to take the sometimes rather difficult task of bringing the entire municipality together, he says.
Högfeldt exemplifies by quickly wanting to build a new school, without taking sufficient account of the entire school system.
In Linköping instead, the M and S government splits after only one term.
- Both we and S have been satisfied with the board this period. We had hoped that we would be rewarded by the people of Linköping, but that was not the case, says Niklas Borg (M), outgoing municipal councillor.
The moderates lost marginally in the municipality, while S fell slightly more than the party did at the national level.
Niklas Borg describes how the Social Democrats after the election, in conversation with him, considered that the voters had partly punished the party for pursuing too much right-wing politics.
- I understood it to mean that they wanted a much more left-wing policy and thus there were worse conditions for us to come to an agreement.
He mentions proposals around schools, among other things, which raise costs and make it more difficult to cope with the economy. In addition, M and S would no longer be able to push through their proposals together, but would be forced to bring in another party.
A third explanation, according to Niklas Borg, was that S and M were locally welded together to make Linköping safe and overcome shootings, explosions and gang crime.
- That question is not as dominant anymore. Then we don't have something big that welds us together, he says.
Do you see that M and S can find their way back to each other in the future and once again rule Linköping together?
- Yes, if we agree on politics, it can absolutely be with the Social Democrats again.
On Gotland, there will also be a divorce between M and S.
According to Meit Fohlin (S), chairman of Region Gotland, the Moderates' change of local representatives is one reason why the board has cracked.
- The new ones are not that experienced. We realized that we would have to pull a very heavy load ourselves, she says.
Now it will be S, C and V who will govern Region Gotland together.
- The Center Party and the Left Party have more skilled politicians and it is also easier to cooperate with parties rooted in popular movements, she says.
What then is the voter's verdict on these unconventional policies between M and S? Researcher Johan Wänström knows that. He has reviewed the election results for the Social Democrats and the Moderates in municipalities where the parties were part of different constellations (see fact box).
Wänström's study shows that a constellation with M and S can be praised by voters in one municipality, but dissed by voters in another municipality. Just as a left-wing government or a Tidö government can be punished or rewarded around the municipalities.
- When the voters decide how they cast their votes, other things are decisive than the formation of parties, he says.
One explanation could be that politics at the municipal level is more pragmatic than it is at the national level, according to Wänström.
- If the residents feel that the municipality has functioned well for the past four years, for example school and care, and you are satisfied with your representatives, then it does not matter so much what formation of parties it is about.
During the last mandate period, M and S ruled together in roughly 60 of the country's 290 municipalities. After the election, several collaborations have broken up at the same time as new ones have been added, Sveriges Radio's compilation shows.
All in all, S and M have so far been included in roughly 50 boards. Many municipalities have not yet had time to form.
