Swedish parliament nominates candidate for PM in effort to break political deadlock
Today, the speaker of Sweden’s Riksdag, Andreas Norlen, will nominate the Moderate Party’s Ulf Kristersson for prime minister.
Sweden’s politics have been at a standstill since general elections were held on September 9. Neither of the country’s main coalitions, the centre-right Alliance or the leftist Red-Greens, garnered enough support to form a government alone. Now, Speaker Andreas Norlen, another member of the Alliance’s Moderates, has taken charge of the government building process.
Stockholm’s legislature has never rejected a speaker-proposed government, but some doubt continues to shroud Mr Kristersson’s PM nomination after a fraught election cycle. Red-Greens have tenuous support for the PM nominee at best, while the far-right Sweden Democrats want a more conservative nominee. If Mr Kristersson is rejected, the speaker will be forced to nominate a more left-leaning PM with the support of the Red-Greens.
If Mr Kristersson is approved, likely with the support of some of the left’s Social Democrats, Sweden will move to the right, representing a non-centre-left government for the first time in over a century. The most apparent change would likely be more pro-business measures put in place to stimulate a stagnating economy.
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