Sweden’s Center Party will not back the budget as heads of government against the first crisis
The leader of Sweden’s Center Party said that the party will not vote “yes” to the minority government’s budget in a vote in parliament later on Wednesday, which means that an opposition finance proposal will probably be adopted.
Party leader Annie Loof also said that her party will not block the Social Democrats’ leader Magdalena Andersson from becoming the new prime minister in a confirmation vote on Wednesday. The Center Party prefers Andersson to a right-wing government that would need the support of the Sweden Democrats, a populist anti-immigrant party, to take power.
“We will not give the Sweden Democrats government power,” Annie Loof told reporters at a news conference. She said the Center Party could not support the budget because a settlement between the ruling minority coalition and the Left Party, agreed to secure support for Andersson in the prime ministerial vote, had “dragged the government further to the left”.
Three opposition parties have presented a joint budget that is likely to win parliamentary approval. The Center Party’s decision confuses Swedish politics. Andersson will probably be the country’s first female prime minister later on Wednesday, but is facing the choice of governing the center-right budget policy, at least until the spring, when the government has a chance to revise the policy in a new budget bill.
Stefan Lofven, the outgoing Prime Minister, agreed to such an assignment in 2014, but said that he would not do it again until he unexpectedly announced plans to resign earlier this year. Andersson – provided she is confirmed as prime minister on Wednesday morning – has not said whether she would resign or continue as a soldier, if the opposition’s finance bill passes.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)