(Adnkronos) – Sweden’s outgoing Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, has been tasked with trying to form a new government, nearly two months after general elections resulted in a political stalemate. Parliament Speaker Andreas Norlen has given the conservative Kristersson, who has led a caretaker government since the September 13 election defeat, one week to try and build a majority administration. “I already see that it will be difficult. Probably very difficult. But perhaps not entirely impossible,” the outgoing premier told reporters in parliament, stressing that the distribution of seats remains unchanged.
The attempt comes after the failure of the center-left opposition bloc, which won 176 seats in the elections against the center-right bloc’s 173: the two attempts by Social Democratic Party leader Magdalena Andersson to form a government were unsuccessful. Today, lawmakers also rejected Center Party leader Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist as a candidate for prime minister, after she too informed the speaker that she had failed in her attempt to form a broad-based government. Although the four center-left parties hold a majority, the Center Party has refused to cooperate with the Left Socialist Party, whose support is necessary to build a left-wing majority, even though the latter insists it will only support a left-wing government if it is included. “There are many red lines,” the centrist leader summarized.
The Speaker of the Swedish Parliament can submit four prime ministerial candidates to a vote by lawmakers, after which new elections must be called: the one on Thand Ringqvist was the second. Observers expect parties to face increasing pressure to compromise on their respective red lines as the risk of new elections approaches. Sweden has become accustomed to long negotiations for government formation: it took 37 days after the 2022 elections and 134 days in 2018.
