Break of the coalition
Once prime minister and back: Sweden’s head of government only throws hours of election
Magdalena Andersson was Sweden’s first female prime minister for just a few hours
© Pontus Lundahl / DPA
Magdalena Andersson was only just elected Sweden’s first female prime minister – and the Social Democrat resigned for just hours. Their coalition was broken.
The term of office of the Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson came to an end on the day of her election: Just a few hours after her appointment as the new Prime Minister of the Scandinavian country, Andersson submitted her resignation. The reason was the break of her government coalition, said the Social Democrat on Wednesday evening in Stockholm. Andersson’s budget had previously failed in parliament, and the Greens then left the governing coalition.
“It is anchored in the constitution that a government has to resign if a party leaves. I don’t want to lead a government whose legitimacy is called into question,” the 54-year-old told reporters. She hopes to soon be re-elected to the head of a minority government consisting solely of Social Democrats.
Parliament’s President Andreas Norlen said he had accepted Andersson’s resignation. He will contact the party leaders before deciding on how to proceed on Thursday.
Magdalena Andersson was only just elected
It was not until Wednesday morning that the head of the Social Democrats was elected as the first woman to head Sweden’s government. Even this vote was extremely narrow for the ambitious politician: 117 members of parliament voted for Andersson, 57 abstained and 174 voted against her.
In order to become prime minister, Andersson could not be rejected by an absolute majority in parliament. This was preceded by difficult negotiations on the future budget of the minority government, which at the end of the day should also lead to a break in the coalition.
At the last minute on Tuesday evening, Andersson won the support of the Left Party for her election – and promised a pension increase in return. Because of the concessions to the left, the small Center Party again withdrew its support for Andersson’s budget. This then failed in parliament.
Greens resign from government
Instead, the MPs voted for the budget of the opposition – consisting of the conservative moderates, the Christian Democrats and the far-right Sweden Democrats. The Greens then resigned from the government. His party could not accept the “historic budget of the opposition, which was drawn up for the first time with the right-wing extremists,” said Green leader Per Bolund.
Andersson had previously indicated that he wanted to govern with the opposition’s budget as well. “I think I can still rule the country,” she said at a press conference after her appointment. When the Greens withdrew, this project failed.
The social democrat was previously finance minister. Her party friend Stefan Löfven announced his retirement in August after seven years in office. The move was expected to give his successor sufficient time to profile herself in the run-up to the elections in September next year. At the beginning of November, the Social Democrats had already elected Andersson as his successor at the top of the party.
Although Sweden has long insisted on gender equality, the Scandinavian country has never been headed by a woman. All the other Nordic countries – Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland – already had women prime ministers.