Sweden’s Riksdag supports center leader Ulf Kristersson as new prime minister – POLITICO
STOCKHOLM — Sweden’s parliament narrowly approved Moderate party leader Ulf Kristersson as prime minister on Monday after a fiery debate between lawmakers over the Nordic country’s looming rightward swing.
“I feel humbled by the challenges ahead,” Kristersson told reporters after the debate. “We sought a mandate for change during the last election campaign because we felt it was necessary, and now that change is possible.”
The coalition that Kristersson leads won the September 11 election with 176 seats to 173, and Kristersson, a 58-year-old former social affairs minister, won Monday’s vote by the same narrow margin.
The incoming government, which will consist of the Moderates plus two other centrist parties, will be backed from the outside by the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD) after the new coalition promised to adopt a series of SD proposals, including tougher criminal penalties and tighter border controls.
Opposition leaders in Monday’s debate criticized the incoming government in sharp terms.
Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar compared his ideas for law and order to the creation of a “moral police”. Center leader Annie Lööf called the new influence of SD a “paradigm shift” that had “given the keys to the government office to a xenophobic, nationalist party”.
Kristersson said his proposal was the best way to address Sweden’s pressing challenges, from gang-related crime to the integration of new immigrants.
He will formally present his new government’s policy platform, and the names of the ministers who will deliver it, to parliament on Tuesday.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us,” he said. “It will be difficult, it will take time, but it will be possible.”