The leader of Sweden’s conservative Moderates party will get a second chance to try to form a government, the speaker of parliament said Monday, two months after elections produced a political deadlock.
Ulf Kristersson’s Moderates are part of the centre-right four-party Alliance which received marginally fewer votes on September 9 than the previous governing centre-left coalition.
Both blocs have struggled to form a majority after refusing to make a deal with the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, which has roots in the neo-Nazi movement.
Kristersson failed in his first bid to form a government on October 14, and outgoing Prime Minister Stefan Lofven then said he had also failed on October 29.
In a bid to force the parties to reach an agreement, speaker Andreas Norlen said he would propose Kristersson to parliament as a candidate for prime minister next week, pushing the issue to a vote for the first time since efforts began to form a government.
“It’s not clear in advance whether the various parties are going to accept Ulf Kristersson as prime minister,” Norlen told reporters.
But, he stressed, “the process must move forward, the dynamics between the parties have to change. The fruitless talks must come to an end.” The date for parliament’s vote is not yet known, but Norlen said November 14 was a possibility.
Published in Daily Times, November 6th 2018.