Election of third deputy speaker
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns the election of the third deputy speaker. C nominates Kerstin Lundgren as she has great experience and knowledge 1. C argues that it is up to the Riksdag to decide who should hold the post and requests a secret ballot 1. V nominates Lotta Johnsson Fornarve as V is the fourth largest party and she has done a meritorious job 2. V argues that V has received more votes than C 2. MP has no specific preferences between the candidates but will vote for V's candidate because V has received more votes 3. S believes that the election should take place with respect for the election result and proposes that a lottery decides who receives the assignment 4.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Annie Lööf (C)
Madam Speaker! Honored members of the Swedish Parliament! On behalf of the Centre Party, I wish to nominate Kerstin Lundgren for the position of third deputy speaker.
Since 2018, Kerstin Lundgren has been the third deputy speaker of the Riksdag, and she has managed that assignment excellently. Kerstin Lundgren has very solid parliamentary experience from municipal and regional politics and has been a member of the Swedish Riksdag since 2002.
She has extensive experience and great knowledge in two areas important for the Speaker's office. During her first term here in the Riksdag, she sat on the Committee on the Constitution and contributed, not least, to the parliamentary constitutional investigation and the major reviews that KU then conducted, which have developed both the work of the Riksdag and the Government Offices. For the last 16 years - since 2006 - Kerstin has been a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Center Party's foreign policy spokesperson.
Kerstin has great integrity and experience in leading meetings and delegations. She has all the prerequisites to continue being a unifying and respected representative for the Swedish Riksdag as third deputy speaker.
Madam Speaker! Since the Center Party and the Left Party have an equal number of mandates in the Riksdag and it is the distribution of mandates that determines the composition of the Speaker's presidency, the Center Party believes that it is up to the Chamber of the Riksdag to decide who shall hold the post of third deputy speaker. We in the Center Party therefore nominate Kerstin Lundgren to continue as third deputy speaker. We wish to utilize the opportunity that exists in the Riksdag to request a closed ballot in the election of the third deputy speaker.
SAMUEL GONZALEZ WESTLING (V)
Madam Speaker! Vänsterpartiet nominates Lotta Johnsson Fornarve for the position of third deputy speaker.
The Swedish people have voted, and we in Vänsterpartiet then became the fourth largest party. We are of the opinion that the position of third deputy speaker should belong to the fourth largest party among the parties that can represent the entire Riksdag and the entire Swedish people.
Lotta Johnsson Fornarve has sat in the Speaker's Bureau since 2018 and has done so in a meritorious manner. It has been a time that has put the Speaker's Bureau to hard tests, with a long government formation, a pandemic, war in our surrounding world, and no fewer than three additional government formations. Lotta Johnsson Fornarve has been an active part of a Speaker's Bureau which, I dare say, has left not much else to be desired.
I want to particularly highlight her commitment in the Riksdag's equality group. Under the leadership of the outgoing first deputy speaker Åsa Lindestam and Lotta Johnsson Fornarve, the equality work in the Riksdag has been strengthened in a very positive way. Among other things, the support for members who have been subjected to sexual harassment and discrimination based on gender has been developed. Parliaments from all over the world have shown interest in learning about the Swedish Riksdag's way of working with equality issues. Lotta Johnsson Fornarve was needed for that work.
In addition to her meritorious contributions as second deputy speaker during the previous term, Lotta Johnsson Fornarve is a woman of high integrity. Her background as one of the organizers behind the successful anti-apartheid work within the Isolera Sydafrika-kommittén, Isak, which was conducted together with a wide range of different organizations to abolish apartheid in South Africa, makes her an excellent representative for Sweden and the Riksdag.
Against this background, I question the Center Party's actions here today. We in the Left Party are trying to extend a hand to those who for years have claimed to be opponents of right-wing extremism and racism. The purpose is that we should jointly take the fight and stand up against just this. But the Center Party does not stand up against the Sweden Democrats. When they do put forward a counter-candidate, it is instead against the Left Party. They argue that our parties are equally large, which is not true considering the number of votes we have received. When two parties have received an equal number of mandates, the prevailing order in the Riksdag when parties are to be sorted by size is that one starts from which party received the most votes in the election, and in this case, it is the Left Party.
If I didn't know better, I would say that it is a matter of an impending shift in position from the Center Party's side. But that naturally cannot be the case after all the promises that were given during the election campaign.
Vänsterpartiet maintains, however, that Lotta Johnsson Fornarve as representative for Vänsterpartiet, the fourth largest party in the Riksdag after the Swedish people have had their say, is the most suitable person for the position of third deputy speaker. I therefore request a closed vote.
Rasmus Ling (MP)
Madam Speaker! When the elections of the Speaker and the Speaker's Presidium took place in connection with the 2018 call to order, Lotta Johnsson Fornarve was elected second Vice Speaker. The Sweden Democrats had at that time nominated Björn Söder, but in the vote, Lotta Johnsson Fornarve was elected by a majority. Kerstin Lundgren was then elected third Vice Speaker. This meant that both the Left Party and the Centre Party received places in the Speaker's Presidium. From our side, the Green Party, we would have gladly seen such a solution again this time and during this mandate period. But now it has not become so. We elected the second Vice Speaker just now, and now we face the election of the third Vice Speaker.
In the choice between Lotta Johnsson Fornarve and Kerstin Lundgren, Miljöpartiet has no particular preferences. We believe that both candidates did a meritorious job in the Speaker's Bureau during the previous term. Since, as we see it, there are no objective reasons for either candidate, it is the party game that determines how we stand in the vote for Miljöpartiet. The parties have an equal number of mandates, but Vänsterpartiet received more votes in the election. Therefore, Miljöpartiet will vote for the candidate that Vänsterpartiet has nominated: Lotta Johnsson Fornarve.
Gunilla Carlsson (S)
Madam Speaker! Honored members of the Swedish Parliament! For the Social Democrats, the election of the Speaker is of great principled importance. In the election of the Speaker, we Social Democrats declared that we have this time chosen to depart from what has been our principle, namely that the Speaker is elected from the Parliament's largest party. The Parliament consists of parties, not of blocs, constellations, or anything else.
It also means that we believe the election of the rest of the Speaker's Presidium should take place with respect for the election result. We do not want a situation where a majority in the Chamber could shut out all opposition parties from the Speaker's Presidium. That would be democratically questionable. Therefore, we chose to withhold our vote in the election of the second Deputy Speaker. We do the same in the election of the third Deputy Speaker. Here, the election result has given the parties an equal number of mandates. In the absence of an agreement between the parties concerned, a coin toss should decide who receives the assignment as third Deputy Speaker.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.