Prime Minister Stefan Löfven today asked to be relieved from his post as Prime Minister from the Speaker of the Riksdag, after suffering a vote of no confidence last week. He has since called on the country’s Parliament to form a new Government instead of holding an early election.
The incumbent Government will continue during the Speaker’s attempts to find a new Prime Minister that has enough support from the Riksdag, with tradition calling for a Government that, during this time, merely runs day-to-day operations as opposed to taking any politically sensitive decisions.
“From a strict BOS perspective – we don’t have an opinion on other societal issues other than gambling regulation – the development is positive,” said Hoffstedt. “The reason for this is that the incumbent Minister, Mr Ardalan Shekarabi, repeatedly has shown that he doesn’t have a functioning gambling market as his first priority.
“The possibility to pick political points by criticising and making life miserable for the privately owned and international gambling industry always comes first, hand in hand with his willingness to offer state-owned and/or state-governed gambling operators special treatment.”
The opposition, however, has difficulties of its own, meaning both Löfven and Shekarabi may return as part of a new Government.
“But, and this is important, since the Government now is an expedition government it will at least slow down the process to impose stricter regulation on private international gambling companies and give further benefits to operators with close ties to the Government,” added Hoffstedt.
Any new opposition Government could go either way in terms of being advantageous to BOS and the wider Swedish gambling market, explained Hoffstedt.
“Such Government will probably include ministers with a relatively positive and liberal attitude towards the gambling industry, but also ministers with a negative attitude shaped in beliefs of public health, religion and conservatism,” he said.
