Magdalena Andersson, the first female PM of Sweden, was announced as the leader of the coalition government in Sweden. But, she had to resign within hours of her appointment because her coalition partner quit the government. Also, her budget failed to pass.
In place, the parliament passed the budget prepared by the opposition. It included the anti-immigrant far-right. “I have told the speaker that I wish to resign,” Ms Andersson told reporters
The coalition partner of Ms Andersson, the Greens party, could not accept the budget. Ms Andersson expressed that she hopes to become PM again as a single-party government leader.
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She said that it is a constitutional practice for the coalition government to resign when a party quits the coalition. Further, she shared that she did not want to become the PM of a government whose legitimacy is under controversy.
Speaker shared that he will contact the political party’s representatives to discuss the next move. Ms Andersson became the PM on Wednesday. As per the new Swedish law, she just needed a majority of MPs to not vote against her.
It is important to know that the appointment of Ms Andersson as the first female PM in Sweden had a lot of significance. After a hundred years, the women in Sweden got the right to vote. The 54-year-old PM, a Social democratic leader, got a standing ovation by some sections in the Parliament.
Her election as the head of the minority government, came as an 11th hour deal with the opposition left the party. She got the support of the coalition party Greens.
There are 349 members of the Riksdag. She got the support of 117 MPs and 174 voted against her. The rest of 57 MPs abstained from voting and gave her a victory by a single vote. Her control on power was loose because the Nordic countries have a divided political landscape.
Her predecessor Löfven was governed by performing a complex balance act to get support from left and centre political parties in Parliament. The centre party was worried by the deal of the left party, and it announced that it will not back the government-led by Ms Anderson.
Ms Anderson is a former junior swimming champion from the university city of Uppsala. She began her political career in 1996 as a Political Advisor. She was a political Advisor for then-Prime Minister Goran Persson. Ms Anderson has also been the finance minister for 7 years.
Before, Ms Andersson, Sweden was the only Nordic state that did not have a woman as PM. As prime minister, she was preceded by 33 men. She is also the second woman to head up the centre-left Social Democrats party, according to Sweden’s Twitter account.
“We cannot support a budget from a government which is moving far to the left, which we think the incoming government is doing,” Center Party leader Annie Loof told reporters.
Löfven stepped down at the beginning of this month and allowed Ms Anderson to boost support for the party before the general election. The general elections are scheduled to take place in September next year.
At this point, whoever will lead the nation, will face a vital challenge. There are many incidents of Gang violence and shootings in many areas of the capital Stockholm and other cities of Sweden.
The Covid-19 further exposed the gaps in the country. The death rate in Sweden was much higher than in other Nordic nations. At the same time, the country needs to speed up the shift to a ‘green economy’ if it aims to meet climate change goals.
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