The group leaders of the Centre Party, Liberals, Christian Democrats, Moderates, and Green Party in Stockholm city council. Photo:
The Green Party has agreed to work with the centre-right Alliance parties in Stockholm's city council, meaning a power shift in the Swedish capital.
"We have chosen to enter into a green-blue cooperation," said Anna König Jerlmyr, group leader for the Moderate Party in Stockholm. She said the decision was taken after "productive and intensive negotiations with the goal of finding a stable and long-term majority."
The capital was previously run by a red-green-pink bloc, made up of the Social Democrats, Green Party, and Feminist Initiative, which lost its majority in the September 9th election.
September 9th saw Swedish citizens vote for their representatives at three levels of government: national, regional, and municipal. At the national level and at the local level in many areas, no bloc won a majority, leading to a period of negotiations made complicated by the high number of parties in Swedish politics (eight represented in parliament, with others active at the local level).
Two policies agreed on by the parties were that plans for a new flagship Apple store in the city centre will be stopped, and that Stockholm will not host the 2026 Winter Olympics, Dagens Nyheter reported.
"The discussion means that we will be able to carry out much of our election manifesto, and ensure that the Sweden Democrats are not given leverage in Stockholm," said Green Party group leader Daniel Helldén at the press conference.
As in the parliamentary elections, the Stockholm city council elections left the two main blocs — the Alliance and the red-green-pink grouping — without a majority, with the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats the third largest group.
At the national level, deadlock continues. Moderates leader Ulf Kristersson has been asked by the speaker of parliament to try to form a government, but whether or not he will be successful and, if he is, which parties he will get support from, remains to be seen.
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