Status: 06/28/2021 11:15 a.m.
One week after a vote of no confidence, the Swedish Prime Minister Löfven submitted his resignation. He wanted to prevent new elections. Now the search for a successor begins – Löfven could also get a new chance.
The Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven submitted his resignation a week after the vote of no confidence in parliament was lost. The 63-year-old head of the Social Democrats announced in Stockholm. In view of the pandemic, a new election is not the best for Sweden as there is only one year left until the parliamentary election, he said at a press conference.
After the vote of no confidence, Löfven had a week to choose between resigning and re-election. Löfven and his Social Democrats have so far led Sweden in a minority government with the Greens.
Another chance for Löfven?
The President of Parliament now has to find a candidate who will be commissioned to form a new government. Stefan Löfven could get another chance. “I am available to lead a government that the Reichstag can tolerate,” said Löfven. He left it open with which parties he wanted to form a government. The head of the moderates, Ulf Kristersson, is also working to collect a majority for a civic alliance.
Löfven’s previous alliance of parties was broken due to a dispute over fixed rental prices for new buildings. A majority in the Reichstag had expressed their distrust in him last Monday and overthrew him and his government. It was the first time that a prime minister in Sweden was brought down by a vote of no confidence.
Löfven has ruled since 2014
Löfven has ruled for seven years. After the parliamentary elections in 2018, the formation of a government was made much more difficult by the strong results of the right-wing populists. It was only after months of negotiations that Löfven found a model in which red-green was tolerated by the Center Party and the Liberals – a novelty because this happened across the classic bloc boundaries.