Longtime left-ruled Sweden has a new Prime Minister, with Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson elected by the country’s parliament as PM after a coalition agreement between the centre-right parties was reached last week.
Kristersson became Sweden’s new Prime Minister on Monday by a vote of 176 to 173 with no abstentions and is expected to present his new government on Tuesday. The election of Kristersson comes despite his centre-right party placing third behind the populist Sweden Democrats in last month’s election.
“It feels big. I’m grateful. I am happy about the confidence I have received from the Riksdag but also visibly humbled by the tasks that lie ahead,” Kristersson said following the vote.
The election of Prime Minister Kristersson comes after the coalition of the Moderates, the Sweden Democrats, the Christian Democrats, and the Liberals reached a governing agreement known as the Tidö agreement last week, broadcaster SVT reports.
Under the Tidö agreement, the new government will seek major reforms in several areas, including immigration and seek to withdraw residency permits in certain cases, deport people involved in criminal organisations or extremist organisations and tighten the rules around gaining Swedish citizenship.
The new government will also investigate problems linked to labour migration and launch an investigation into whether new migrants to Sweden should automatically be granted social benefits.
On crime, the Kristersson government will look to double the sentences for crimes linked to criminal gangs and look into deporting gang criminals without Swedish citizenship even if they have not been convicted of crimes.
A ban on living in certain areas will also be proposed for those convicted of crimes relating to gang activity, honour crimes, domestic violence and extremism.
The new proposals come as Sweden has seen its worst-ever year for fatal gun violence this year with the previous fatal shooting record being broken in August. The majority of the cases are linked to criminal gang activity, with many of the gang criminals coming from migrant backgrounds.
Sweden’s National Police Chief Anders Thornberg admitted in January of this year that migration and integration failures have contributed to the issue of violent criminal gangs saying, “It is based on a number of different factors. A sharp increase in demand for drugs, accelerating technological development and digitalisation, increased migration and lack of integration.”
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.
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