Magdalena Andersson: Sweden’s first female prime minister returns after resignation
Sweden’s first female prime minister has been reappointed to the top job after political turbulence forced her to resign within hours of taking office last week.
Members of the Riksdag supported the Social Democrats’ party leader Magdalena Andersson by a narrow margin in a new vote on Monday.
She will try to lead a one-party government until an election in September next year.
She resigned as prime minister on Wednesday after her coalition collapsed.
Just hours earlier, Andersson had been elected Sweden’s first female prime minister by a single vote in the Riksdag.
But the 54-year-old economist’s plan to form a new coalition government with the Green Party ended in disintegration when her budget proposal failed.
Instead, the Riksdag voted in favor of a budget drawn up by a group of opposition parties, including the far-right Sweden Democrats.
The Green Party said they would not accept a budget drafted by the far right and walked away from the government, leading to its demise.
According to a convention, the Prime Minister of Sweden is expected to resign if a coalition party leaves the government.
In Monday’s vote in the Swedish Parliament, the Riksdag voted 101 of its 349 members yes, 75 abstained and 173 voted no.
To be appointed Prime Minister under Sweden’s political system, a candidate only needs to avoid a majority voting against them.
At a press conference after the vote, Andersson said that she is ready to “take Sweden forward” with a program focused on welfare, climate change and crime.
But without support from other parties, Andersson will fight to get legislation passed in the Riksdag, where the center-right Social Democrats hold 100 of 349 seats.
Andersson, former junior swimmer from the university city of Uppsala, began his political career in 1996 as a political adviser to the then Prime Minister Göran Persson.
She has been Minister of Finance for the past seven years before becoming leader of the Social Democrats in early November.
She replaced Stefan Lofven, who resigned as Prime Minister after seven years in power.
Until Andersson took over, Lofven had remained prime minister in an interim government after being deposed in a vote of no confidence in June.
– BBC