Swedish Prime Minister Löfven loses confidence vote Far-right Sweden Democrats back opposition Alliance in confidence motion.
Swedish Prime Minister and Social Democratic Party leader Stefan Lofven | Henrik Montgomery/AFP via Getty Images
Sweden’s prime minister, Stefan Löfven, lost a confidence vote in parliament on Tuesday after the far-right Sweden Democrats backed the center-right Alliance’s bid to oust the Social Democrats.
Löfven’s defeat in the vote, in which 204 MPs voted against him versus 142 votes in favor, means the speaker of parliament must now broker talks to form a new government.
“The voters want to have another government,” Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Åkesson told MPs in the debate Tuesday morning.
Sweden was plunged into political uncertainty after the September 9 electionresulted in a difference of just one seat between the center left, led by the Social Democrats, and the center right, led by Ulf Kristersson‘s Moderates. The Sweden Democrats gained ground to finish in third place.
After the vote, Löfven told parliament he would still be willing to serve as prime minister and “lead a government that enjoys broad support in Sweden’s parliament.”
He will continue at the helm of a caretaker government while the newly elected speaker of the Riksdag, Andreas Norlén from the Moderates, leads talks toward forming the next government. Norlén said in a statement on the parliament’s home page that his first step would be to gather representatives of all parties for talks on Thursday.
“To the Alliance it is obvious that Sweden needs a new government,” said Kristersson.
The Moderates and their Alliance partners, who won 143 seats in the 349-seat Riksdag in September versus 144 for the center-left bloc, have so far refused to countenance a formal coalition deal with the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats, who took 62 seats.
“Unless the combined center-right parties are willing to break their promise never to give the Sweden Democrats power over the government, a so-called Alliance government is unrealistic with this distribution of seats,” Löfven told a news conference.
He insisted that, as the party with the most votes, the Social Democrats were at the speaker’s disposal to discuss forming a new government.
The delicate balance of power in the Riksdag means it could be tough for Norlén to broker a deal. Parliamentary rules say that if he fails after four attempts, a snap election has to be called within three months
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Source:Politico.com
