Swedish govt to face no-confidence vote

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven will face a no-confidence vote on June 21, opposition parties announced.
The vote, should it go through, would lead to a snap election or a caretaker government, Xinhua news agency quoted the parties as saying on Thursday.

The threat of a no-confidence vote was first brought forward by the Left Party over plans by Lofven's Social Democrats to let landlords charge market rates for newly built rental apartments.

As the Left Party did not have the required number of parliamentarians to put forward such a motion on their own, Lofven did not budge.

However, anti-immigration Sweden Democrats on the opposite side of the political spectrum has enough seats in parliament and put forward such a motion on Thursday.

Two other opposition parties, the conservative Moderates and the Christian Democrats, have also announced they will support the no-confidence motion, even though they see a rental rates reform as necessary to solve the country's lack of housing.

"Throwing Sweden into a political crisis in these harsh times is not responsible," Lofven said at a press conference on Thursday, referring to the country's ailing economy due to the Covid-19 pandemic.-IANS