Swedish prime minister resigns 8 hours after being elected

This is what we can call an express passage to power. Elected to the Swedish Parliament on Wednesday morning as the new Prime Minister, Magdalena Andersson was forced to resign less than eight hours later. “There is a constitutional practice whereby a coalition government resigns when a party leaves it. I do not want to lead a government whose legitimacy is questioned, ”declared the social democratic leader, after a nightmare day marked by the defeat of her budget and the departure of her environmental allies from the government.

On the evening of this abortive reign, Magdalena Andersson said she hoped to be re-elected to her post in a subsequent vote, with a government this time 100% social-democratic. Elected for a few hours the first woman to this post after several days of already delicate negotiations, she was the victim of a painful game of political domino … Explanations.

The trigger: the far-right budget vote

On Tuesday evening, this 54-year-old economist, until now Minister of Finance to her predecessor Stefan Löfven, had secured in extremis the support necessary to come to power, thanks to a last-minute agreement with the Left Party to increase small pensions. But another key party, the Center Party, unhappy with the concessions made to the left wing, withdrew its support for the budget, without blocking its rise to power. Consequence: the same Parliament which elected her in the morning put her budget in a minority in the afternoon, and adopted that of the right-wing opposition, prepared for the first time with the far-right Democrats of Sweden (SD).

“Magda” Andersson had said he could handle it. But for his environmental ally, the only other party in the minority government coalition, it was unacceptable to govern with a finance law bearing the stamp of the far-right. Shortly after the budget defeat, the environmental party therefore announced its departure from the government, forcing Magdalena Andersson to return her barely acquired apron. “It is not the mission of the Green Party to apply the budget negotiated by SD. Our leadership is unanimous in saying that we cannot be in a government with a budget prepared by SD ”, justified the spokesperson of the party, Märta Stenevi. House Speaker Andreas Norlén has said he accepts his resignation and will now contact party leaders before deciding how to proceed on Thursday.

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A new chance for Magdalena Andersson

Constitutionally, Magdalena Andersson having not yet had time to present her government to the king – which was scheduled for Friday – she could not officially replace Stefan Löfven as Prime Minister. The queen for a day, however, may have another chance.

The tight political balances in the Swedish parliament, which resulted in a four-month delay in forming a government after the last elections in 2018, do not allow an alternative to a social democratic prime minister, analysts said. Dismissed by an unprecedented vote of no confidence in June, Stefan Löfven made his return in July. Worn out by seven years in power and by this political crisis, he announced in August that he would resign in November, less than a year from the legislative elections of September 2022.

Known for her direct style which earned her the nickname “the bulldozer”, Magdalena Andersson had already succeeded her at the head of the Social Democratic Party in early November. Despite being a clear champion of gender equality, Sweden has so far never had a female prime minister, unlike all the other Nordic countries. Moved to be the first woman to come to power after 33 men since 1876, Magdalena Andersson had greeted in the morning “a special day”.

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