• Friday, 17 May 2024

Fresh vote to appoint Magdalena Andersson as prime minister of Sweden

Fresh vote to appoint Magdalena Andersson as prime minister of Sweden
Stockholm, 25 November 2021 (dpa/MIA) — Social Democrat politician Magdalena Andersson will get a second chance at being elected Swedish prime minister. Parliamentary speaker Andreas Norlen announced at a press conference in Stockholm on Thursday that he would nominate the 54-year-old as a candidate for the post again later in the afternoon. A new vote in the Swedish parliament could then take place as early as next Monday. At the same time, Norlen regretted the events of Wednesday, when former finance minister Andersson was elected prime minister in parliament but resigned just a few hours later. Instead of Andersson's budget, an alternative budget proposal by several opposition parties was approved on Wednesday afternoon, which had been negotiated with the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats. Because of the involvement of the right-wing populists, the Greens declared that they would leave the government with the Social Democrats. Andersson — the first woman ever to be prime minister in Sweden — submitted her resignation immediately after this announcement. However, she emphasized at the time that she still wanted to become prime minister with a purely Social Democratic minority government. Her predecessor and party colleague Stefan Lofven had been head of a center-left-Green minority government for the past seven years.