Sweden’s prime minister resigns but warns against snap election

Swedish prime minister Stefan Lofven has urged the Riksdag parliament to find a new government without a snap election after he submitted his resignation on Monday.

The Social Democrat politician has been prime minister since 2014 but last week lost a confidence motion, the first Swedish leader to do so.

"A snap election is not what is best for Sweden, " said Mr Lofven, warning of ongoing pandemic challenges should a fresh poll be called before the regular September 2022 election date.

“The speaker will now begin work on proposing a prime minister who can be tolerated by the Riksdag,” added Mr Lofven. “The government will continue to govern the country for now but as the caretaking government.”

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Mr Lofven, a welder and union leader by profession, has been written off in the past, particularly after the 2018 election failed to secure his government a majority. He described his resignation as “the toughest” decision he’d taken in his career.

Now Riksdag speaker Andreas Norlen is charged with sounding out all political parties with a view to forming a new government in the so-called talmansrunda or “speaker round”. Given the Social Democrats are the largest party in parliament, it is likely they will be asked to open talks and that Mr Lofven will be in play as a future prime minister.

Rent controls

Last week his minority Social Democratic-Green coalition lost a confidence vote over a proposal to drop rent controls for tenants in newly-built apartments.

The opposition Left Party vowed to table a vote of no-confidence, saying the proposals breached its deal to support the government. The far-right opposition Sweden Democrats (SD) seized the initiative – with later declarations of support from other opposition parties, the Moderates and Christian Democrats.

In the end, 181 MPs voted against Mr Lofven and 109 were in favour with 51 abstentions.

Mr Lofven has won back support of the Left Party as an ally but other parties now favour a centre-right government to exclude the Social Democrats, but with support from the far right.

In this centre-right constellation Ulf Kristersson, leader of the second-largest Moderates grouping, would be on course to be prime minister.

Mr Norlen has four attempts to find a new government and he may need them all given the fractious, four-month talks before the departing administration was formed.

The Riksdag speaker told SVT television he hoped that coalition talks this time around would be speedier.

Former foreign minister Carl Bildt wrote on Twitter than he saw "no obvious way forward to a new government", given parliament's centre-right and centre-left groups each have about 40 per cent of the vote.

Mr Lofven has said he is open to new ideas, such as a grand coalition, and that his party is “ready to shoulder the responsibility” of power.

The departing prime minister said the best argument for fresh elections would be to give voters a chance to send a signal to centre-right parties on possible co-operation with the far right.