Magdalena Andersson will be the 1st female prime minister in Sweden as Prime Minister Stefan Lofven applies for resignation
Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Lofven left on Wednesday, a generally expected move that paves the way for his appointed successor Magdalena Andersson ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections.
Television cameras filmed Lofven when he handed over his farewell letter to the Speaker of the Riksdag Andreas Norlen. Lofven, who has been in power for seven years, resigned as leader of the Social Democrats at the party’s congress last week.
Andersson, who is currently Minister of Finance, was chosen to replace Lofven as party leader, which put her on the way to becoming the country’s first female prime minister if she wins a vote in the Riksdag. No date has been set for that vote yet, but it is not expected until next week.
In Sweden’s Riksdag, the political forces are so finely balanced that the Social Democrats need support from both their Green Party’s coalition partners and the Left and Center Parties to elect a new Prime Minister.
The Center Party said on Wednesday that they would back Andersson and the Left is expected to do the same. The act of installing a woman as prime minister sounds almost anachronistic in a country that has long fought for equality.
All other Nordic countries – Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland – have all seen women lead their governments. The change in the leadership of the Social Democrats comes when the party hovers close to its lowest approval ever with elections less than a year away, in September 2022.
The right-wing opposition, led by the conservative Moderates, has in recent years moved closer to the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats and hopes to be able to govern with its informal backing.
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Published: Wednesday 10 November 2021, 18:33 IST