On Wednesday, two of the SD's dissidents voted with the opposition on the issue of new transitional provisions in the Citizenship Act.
It was therefore close to the government's proposal falling through in that particular part, but at the last moment the SD countered by calling in two members who were actually out of office. The government won the vote by a margin of one vote.
Now the opposition is warning that SD's actions could make it more difficult for the government to get its policies through. The government has a number of important reforms that it wants to push through before the election.
“Very unfortunate”
The Moderates have a difficult situation ahead of them. How are they going to get all their bills through until the election, when the SD is basically putting the set-off system out of play, says S group leader Lena Hallengren.
S threatens to copy SD's approach. This would mean more unpredictable votes, and increased pressure on MPs to come to the chamber even if they are sick, traveling or for other reasons unable to attend.
The concrete consequence is simply that it is not possible to predict the outcome of the upcoming votes, says Annika Hirvonen (MP).
Moderates' group leader Mattias Karlsson says that it would be "very unfortunate" if the set-off system were to be put out of action for the rest of the mandate period.
It would put enormous pressure on not knowing from vote to vote whether your proposals will get through, he says.
In addition, the SD dissidents have now shown that they are prepared to stop parts of Tidösidan's reforms. Elsa Widding says that she supported the opposition because the Legislative Council criticized the government's proposal.
Heavy reforms
Similar legal criticism has been raised regarding the major criminal law reform, such as lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 13 years.
Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer does not want to say whether he sees a risk that these proposals will not pass.
"I assume that the parties will find a responsible way to handle issues going forward," he says.
TT has contacted the two SD members Elsa Widding and Katja Nyberg, who have not responded with an answer as to whether they will oppose the government and SD in more votes.
However, Elsa Widding tells SVT:
I will vote based on my own judgment. I also cannot answer how I will vote on allowing 13-year-olds to be sentenced to prison.
