Attempts to form a new government in Sweden stalled on Monday after Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson said she was unable to secure enough support, despite the centre-left bloc winning a narrow majority in this month’s election.
“I can conclude that there is currently no possibility for me to form a government,” Andersson said at a press conference, saying she had lost the support of Sweden’s Left Party.
The speaker of Sweden’s parliament is likely to turn to prime minister Ulf Kristersson to see if he can form a government. Kristersson’s Moderates are the next biggest party after the Social Democrats.
The general election on September 13th saw the centre-left opposition winning a narrow majority, taking 176 seats in parliament to the centre-right’s 173.
RM Block
The result was driven by a decline in support for the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats in the Nordic nation of 10.6 million people, bucking a Europe-wide trend of gains for the far right.
Despite the centre-left’s victory, the vote, widely seen as a referendum on Kristersson’s promise to bring the far-right Sweden Democrats into a ruling coalition, has left forming a stable government fraught with difficulties.
Andersson said she had given up trying to form a government after the Left Party, one of the parties she needed to form a majority, said it would support a candidate from the centre-right as speaker of parliament.
The Left Party has said previously it will only support Andersson as prime minister.
Andersson is expected to make another attempt to form a government if any centre-right talks fail.
The speaker can put four candidates forward to parliament for approval, but if each is rejected, Sweden will hold a new election.
Casting a further cloud over the process, police said on Friday they had started preliminary investigations into five complaints of election fraud around Stockholm.
The inquiries come days after prosecutors opened a separate investigation into suspected fraud in the central Swedish town of Borlange, a case that could put 11 parliamentary seats in play if the Election Review Board orders a re-run of the vote there.
In 2018, Social Democrat Stefan Lofven took 134 days to form a new government. – Reuters
[ Swedish voters produce cliffhanger general election outcomeOpens in new window ]
