Sweden’s first female leader left last week after a few hours. She was just re-elected
It looks like Sweden will soon have its first female prime minister after all. She’s the same who resigned last week, only about seven hours after being hired to lead the country.
Magdalena Andersson – a 54-year-old former finance minister who leads the Social Democratic Party – was re-elected by a narrow margin on Monday and will write history when she officially takes office on Tuesday.
Here’s what happened. Swedish legislators did not elect Andersson until Wednesday, but she decided to resign after a budget defeat in the Riksdag caused a coalition partner to resign.
The government rejected its own budget proposal in favor of one presented by the opposition (which includes the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats), which it The Associated Press reported. This led the Green Party to leave the two-party minority government.
Andersson later said at a press conference that she did not “want to lead a government where there may be reason to question its legitimacy”. The It reports the BBC that the Prime Minister, according to the Convention, is expected to resign if a coalition party leaves the government.
Andersson also said that she would still be interested in leading a Social Democratic one-party government.
And on Monday, she won its second election in less than a week.
Of the Swedish Riksdag with 349 members, known as the Riksdag, 101 members voted yes to Andersson, 173 voted no and 75 abstained. The country’s constitution allows prime ministers to be appointed as long as a parliamentary majority (175 people) does not vote against them – so that was close.
Andersson told reporters after the vote that she is ready to “take Sweden forward” with a platform focused on welfare, climate change and crime, according to the BBC.
English-language news site The room reports that Andersson will formally announce his cabinet on Tuesday morning local time. The transfer of power will take place shortly after at a cabinet change cabinet meeting with the King of Sweden at the Royal Palace.
Her new government will sit until Sweden’s next parliamentary election, which is scheduled for next September.
“I do not see this as the beginning of ten months, I see this as the beginning of ten years,” she told reporters at a news conference, according to The Local.
Her choice is a huge milestone for one of the world’s most equal countries. As Sweden’s official account noted on Twitter, Andersson was preceded in his job by 33 men.
This story originally appeared on the The morning edition liveblogg.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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