Stefan Löfven officially resigns and opens the door for Sweden’s first female prime minister – POLITICO
STOCKHOLM – On Wednesday, Sweden’s Social Democratic Minister of Finance Magdalena Andersson took a step closer to becoming her country’s first female prime minister when Stefan Löfven formally resigned.
In front of the TV cameras, Löfven handed over his farewell letter to the Speaker of the Riksdag, Andreas Norlén, before telling reporters that he was proud to be a “working class kid” who had continued to rule his country.
“In every situation, I have made decisions that I thought were right for Sweden,” he said.
Löfven, a former welder and union leader, has led Sweden since 2014, and has narrowly avoided quick elections on several occasions by cleverly finding a common ground between a disparate group of allies. He announced in August his intention to resign.
In line with Swedish political conventions, the Speaker of the Riksdag will now hold talks with the country’s eight parliamentary party leaders. Norlén will offer the leader he believes has the greatest chance of forming a stable government the opportunity to have his candidacy for prime minister voted on by legislators.
Andersson, who took over as Social Democratic leader from Löfven last week, will probably get the first shot – possibly already at the beginning of next week, experts say – and is now in talks with potential allies to secure their support.
On Wednesday, there were signs that the Center Party and the Green Party, the junior party in the current Social Democratic-led government, are ready to back Andersson, while the leader from the Left Party, Nooshi Dadgostar, whose support Andersson will also demand to become prime minister, said that she wanted further talks with the Social Democrats about, among other things, pension levels.
Löfven said that he expected Andersson to be appointed Prime Minister in the end, as the composition of the Riksdag is the same now as it was when it approved him to continue as Prime Minister as late as July.
“But other parties are now responsible for that,” he said.