Riksdag rejects Magdalena Andersson as prime minister – Sweden’s government formation enters next round
By 248 votes to 99, the Swedish Riksdag has rejected Social Democrat Magdalena Andersson as head of government. Speaker Andreas Norlén must now decide who should be next to try to form a government.
More than a month after the parliamentary election, Sweden still has no new government. On Thursday, 15 October, the Riksdag in Stockholm voted against Social Democrat Magdalena Andersson as prime minister. Only her own party backed her: 99 MPs voted yes and 248 voted no. This means the first attempt to form a government after the election of 13 September has failed.
What happened
Andersson had sought the post at the head of a purely Social Democratic minority government. In the vote around midday, according to media reports, all the other parties voted against her – not only the centre-right parties and the Sweden Democrats, but also her potential partners, the Left Party, the Greens and the Centre Party. According to the dpa news agency and Swedish media, Andersson herself described the result as expected and anticipates several more votes before a new government is in place.
Background: A majority without agreement
The Social Democrats became the largest party in the September election. The bloc of Social Democrats, Left Party, Greens and the liberal Centre Party together holds 176 of the 349 seats, giving it a narrow majority. The outgoing government bloc around Ulf Kristersson (Moderates), supported by the Sweden Democrats, holds 173 seats. Kristersson submitted his resignation after the election and continues to run the government in a caretaker capacity.
The problem lies within the centre-left bloc: the Left Party is demanding to join the government itself. The Centre Party, on the other hand, rejects any government that includes the Left Party. According to its own statements, the Centre Party would have accepted a purely Social Democratic government, but the Left Party voted against this model. You can read more about the negotiations of recent weeks in our report on the red-green leaders’ meeting that ended without a breakthrough.
What happens next
It is now up to Riksdag Speaker Andreas Norlén. He held talks with the party leaders on Thursday itself and, according to SVT, intended to announce on Friday what the next round of exploratory talks would look like. It was initially unclear who would receive the mandate. Norlén had indicated that it could be the turn of the leader of the second-largest party – that would be Kristersson. The Social Democrats, the Centre Party and the Greens are in favour. Kristersson, however, points out that the balance of power in the Riksdag favours the red-green bloc. The Left Party wants Centre Party leader Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist to receive the mandate, something she herself is not seeking.
Why this matters
Under Swedish constitutional law, a total of four votes on a head of government are possible. If all of them fail, a new election must be called. After Thursday’s defeat, three attempts therefore remain. According to the parties’ assessment, a new election is not currently the focus; Thand Ringqvist called such an election a political failure, according to SVT. How government formation in Sweden works in principle is explained in our article on Sweden’s political system.
For travellers and people living in Sweden, the stalemate has no noticeable consequences for the time being: the caretaker government remains in office, and authorities and public services continue to operate as normal.