Sweden faces political deadlock after Andersson gives up attempt to form government

Attempts to form a new government in Sweden hit the buffers on Monday after Social Democrats leader Magdalena Andersson said ‌she was unable to secure enough support, despite the centre-left bloc winning a narrow majority in this month's election.

"I can conclude that there is currently no possibility for me to form a government," Andersson said at a press conference, saying she had lost the support of ‌Sweden's Left Party. The speaker of Sweden's parliament, Andreas Norlen,told reporters he will meet each party leader one-on-one on Wednesday before announcing ‌who will have the next go at exploring the formation of a government.

One likely option would be Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, whose Moderates are the next biggest party after the Social Democrats. The general election on September 13 saw the centre-left opposition taking 176 seats in parliament, just beating the centre-right's 173.

The result was driven ⁠by a ​decline in support for the anti-immigration ⁠Sweden Democrats, bucking a Europe-wide trend of gains for the far right. Despite the centre-left's victory, the vote, widely seen as a referendum on Kristersson's promise to ⁠bring the far-right Sweden Democrats into a ruling coalition, has left forming a stable government fraught with difficulties.

Andersson said she had given up trying ​to form a government after the Left Party, one of the parties she needed to form a majority, said it would ⁠support a candidate from the centre-right as speaker of parliament. The Left Party has said previously it will only support Andersson as prime minister.

Andersson would likely get another ⁠shot ​at trying to form a government if any centre-right attempt fails. The speaker can put four candidates forward to parliament for approval, but if each is rejected, Sweden will hold a new election.

Casting a further cloud over the process, police said on Friday ⁠they had started preliminary investigations into five complaints of election fraud around Stockholm. The probes come days after prosecutors opened a separate investigation ⁠into suspected fraud in the ⁠central Swedish town of Borlange, a case that could put 11 parliamentary seats in play if the Election Review Board orders a re-run of the vote there.

In 2018, Social Democrat Stefan Lofven took ‌134 days to form a ‌new government.