The Swedish Prime Minister, the Social Democrat Magdalena Andersson, has resigned from office just seven and a half hours after being elected by the Parliament of her country to lead a minority government of her party along with the Greens.
The reason is that the Parliament, hours after electing the first woman to head the Swedish Executive, voted in favor of a Budget bill presented by the xenophobic right-wing and far-right opposition. The environmentalists, to avoid governing with Accounts prepared by the opposition, have chosen to leave the Executive, forcing Andersson to present his resignation to re-present himself and obtain the confidence to govern alone.
Andersson was elected at 10 this morning with 117 votes in favor, 174 against and 57 abstentions, thus fulfilling the condition established in the Swedish system to be prime minister: not having the majority of the House against it, set at 175 seats.
Andersson’s election was assured after closing an agreement last night with the Socialist Left Party, which includes an improvement to lower pensions and which closes two weeks of negotiations since he received the order to form a government.
Andersson had already been committed for weeks to abstention from the Centrist Party, with which he has had a pact since January 2019, although he risked that if he made too many concessions to the Socialists, they would withdraw his support.
The centrist leader, Annie Lööf, communicated that his formation would not vote the Executive Accounts because had negotiated directly with the Socialist Left, which has caused the budgets presented jointly by conservatives, Christian Democrats and the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD) to go ahead.
Until the general elections of 2018, all the parties refused to actively collaborate with the SD due to its xenophobic tinge, which provoked in this legislature a pact of the Social Democrats with two center forces that has allowed it to govern since then.
But both conservatives and Christian Democrats have modified their position and now openly accept to negotiate with the SD, although they assure that they will not include this force in a hypothetical government that has come out of the next elections Legislative of September 2022.
Andersson’s coming to power has been caused by the unexpected resignation of his predecessor, Stefan Löfven, who unexpectedly announced in August that he would step down from all positions to ease the future for his successor. Löfven, who headed a minority red-green executive since 2014, had become the first incumbent Swedish head of government at the end of June to lose a vote of no confidence, presented by the Socialist Left to stop a reform of the housing rental regime .
The withdrawal of the project by the centrists, however, paved the way for Löfven to be elected prime minister again a couple of weeks later.
Magdalena Andersson, 54, has been Finance Minister since 2014 and one of the best-image figures in government.
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