Sweden's Andersson fails again to form government, vote set for Thursday
A month after the election, the Social Democrat leader has reached no deal within the left-wing bloc and expects to lose a parliamentary vote.
Archive image · Photo: Frankie Fouganthin / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Swedish Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson has failed in a second attempt to form a government. Talks with the three other parties in the centre-left bloc had stalled, she said on Tuesday. "I haven't secured an agreement with other parties," she said, according to Reuters. In the Sept. 13 election, her bloc narrowly beat outgoing Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson's right-wing bloc, winning 176 seats to 173.
The main sticking point is the Left Party: the Centre Party opposes a government with Left Party ministers, while the Left Party will only back a left-wing government it belongs to. Parliament Speaker Andreas Norlén will still hold a vote on Andersson as prime minister on Thursday, conceding she would likely lose. He is then expected to ask caretaker Prime Minister Kristersson to hold talks, AFP reported.
Under Swedish rules, a candidate takes office unless a parliamentary majority votes against them. The speaker has four attempts; if the fourth fails, a snap election must be called. After the 2018 election, forming a government took more than four months.