Sweden's Nordic editor Richard Orange was in Visby this week at the Almedalen political festival.

One of the many people he spoke to was Niels Paarup-Petersen, who is the migration, education and digitalisation spokesperson for the Centre Party.

On a walk through the city's medieval streets they discussed the chances of the government surviving after the election.

And what would a new government do about transitional rules for citizenship?

Also, are Sweden's political parties too wedded to incremental growth? Is it time to get a lot more ambitious in the age of AI?

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This week host James Savage and regular panelist Richard Orange record the podcast from Almedalen, the annual politics fest in Visby on the Baltic island of Gotland.

They are joined for a lively politics conversation by Henrik Torehammar, a political commentator for the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper.

Almedalen is sometime criticised as an event for Sweden's elites, but how elitist can any event really be in what Torehammar calls a "bicycle monarchy" famed for its flat hierarchies?

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson's Moderate Party is edging towards a disastrous election if polls are to be believed. Can he pull a result out of the fire at the eleventh hour?

The opposition parties look poised to snatch power. But will some pretty major ideological differences act as a stumbling block for the Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson?

And what issues are likely to dominate in the run-up to the September election. Immigration? Climate? Or could the rise of AI make its presence felt on the campaign trail?

Here are links to some of the topics discussed in the episode:

• Why are Swedish politicians so silent on AI?
• Sweden Democrat leader takes aim at Social Democrats in key speech
• Sweden Democrats launch retro election campaign to make 'Sweden like Sweden again'
• More than half of voters think Sweden's government will lose election
• Stay on top of the Swedish election: How to follow The Local's coverage

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Earlier this year the Fair Transition campaign group tried to convince Swedish decision makers to introduce transitional rules for the citizenship reforms which came into force on June 6th.

Two months have now passed since the Swedish parliament voted against transitional rules by the smallest of margins after the far-right Sweden Democrats sent in two MPs who were supposed to be withheld from the vote.

So what now for the campaigners fighting on behalf of the 100,000 citizenship applicants waiting in the citizenship queue?

The Local’s editor Emma Löfgren caught up with the group's spokesman Patrick Gallen to find out more about Fair Transitions plans as they prepare to mount a legal challenge in Sweden's migration courts.

READ ALSO:

• Sweden Democrats accused of cheating to block transitional rules for citizenship

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