09/15/2022 12:11 (act 09/15/2022 12:11)
She is leading the interim government until the formation of a new government ©APA/AFP
Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson has presented her resignation as head of government. Now the Reichstag and Parliament Speaker Andreas Norlén must decide on the process of forming a new government, she said on Thursday in Stockholm. Until a new government is formed, Andersson will lead an interim government.
Andersson’s Social Democrats were once again clearly the strongest force in Sunday’s Reichstag elections. However, a four-party right-conservative bloc around the moderates’ challenger Ulf Kristersson, including the right-wing populist Swedish Democrats, received more seats overall than the left-wing camp around Andersson. After a preliminary count of more than 99.9 percent of all votes, Kristersson’s side won 176 of 349 terms, Andersson’s 173.
Andersson said he had also told Norlén that his door was open to his opponent, Kristersson, should he change his mind and prefer to work with her Social Democrats rather than Sweden’s Democrats.
Norlén announced that the process of forming a government would begin. After the weekend he will speak with representatives of the eight parliamentary parties. As the election result was very close and a final result is not expected until the weekend, he said it was reasonable to wait. He was expected to give Kristersson the task of forming a government.
According to information from the newspaper “Aftonbladet”, representatives of the four parties of the right-wing conservative bloc met this Thursday for negotiations. The aim is to reach a government agreement within ten days, the newspaper reported. After the last parliamentary election in 2018, it took 134 days to form a government under Social Democrat Stefan Löfven – Andersson’s predecessor in the party.