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Sweden gets new prime minister: Magdalena Andersson wins second vote in parliament

AFP/The Local
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Sweden gets new prime minister: Magdalena Andersson wins second vote in parliament
STOCKHOLM 20211129 Magdalena Andersson (S) i Rikdagens plenisal där omröstning sker om hon skall blir statsminister för andra gången. Jonas Ekstromer / TT / kod 10030

Magdalena Andersson has been elected prime minister by the Swedish parliament for the second time in six days.

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Andersson was elected with an extremely small marginal – 173 members of parliament voted against her – two more, and she would have lost the vote. She will be Sweden's first female prime minister once she formally takes office on Tuesday.

"It feels good, and I'm very eager to start working," Andersson said at a press conference shortly after the vote on Monday.

The Social Democrats, alongside Amineh Kakabaveh, parliament's only independent, voted for Andersson, with the Green Party, the Left Party and the Centre Party choosing to abstain.

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Nina Lundström from the Liberal Party also chose to abstain – breaking party lines and going against the rest of the Liberal Party who voted against Andersson.

Under Sweden's system, a prime ministerial candidate does not need the support of a majority in parliament, they just need to avoid a majority voting against them.

Despite being a nation that has long championed gender equality, Sweden has never before had a woman as prime minister.

Last week, Andersson was elected by parliament but she had to resign just hours later – before she even had a chance to formally take office – after the Green Party quit her coalition government.

The parliamentary turbulence was unprecedented in politically stable Sweden, where the Social Democrats have dominated for almost a century.

Andersson will now lead a one-party Social Democrat government, rather than the coalition Green-Social Democrat government which had previously been in power since 2014.

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This will be Sweden's first entirely Social Democratic government in 15 years – the last time a one-party Social Democrat government was in power was in 2006, where Andersson was state secretary of the Finance Ministry under then-prime minister Göran Persson.

However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be easier for the Social Democrats to govern Sweden – their government will still be a minority government, with support from only 100 of parliament’s 349 members, requiring careful cross-party negotiation with the left and right to introduce policy.

"Like all minority governments, we're going to try and cooperate with other parties in parliament. We have a long tradition of cooperation, and we're ready to do what it takes to move Sweden forwards," Andersson said.

She will also have to govern with a budget presented by the opposition conservative Moderates, Christian Democrats and far-right Sweden Democrats, after her budget failed to pass through parliament last week.

Her most obvious cooperation partners are the Greens, the Centre and Left parties.

But she is also expected to court the right on issues blocked by the Greens during their time in government, including the expansion of Stockholm's Arlanda airport and a nuclear fuel waste site.

Andersson has also singled out crime and immigration – key voter concerns – among her top priorities, issues where the Social Democrats are closer ideologically to the centre-right.

The opposition has however been quick to point out that the right has the strongest block in parliament, and would likely be able to pass many of its policies without the Social Democrats.

The four opposition parties on the centre and right are united on most issues and control 174 seats in parliament, while the four parties on the left and centre, which hold 175 seats, are more splintered.

"The Social Democrats will have to accept that it is parliament that decides and government obeys," Moderates leader Ulf Kristersson warned before Monday's vote.

The next step for Andersson is to announce her cabinet - planned for Tuesday at 9.30am. After this she, alongside her new cabinet, will attend a so-called skifteskonselj – a change of government cabinet meeting – with the King of Sweden at the Royal Palace.

That is when the transition of power formally takes place, after which her new government will take up its duties.

She faces a challenging period in the run-up to the next election, scheduled for September next year, which observers predict will be a close race.

However, Andersson is looking further ahead.

"I don't see this as the start of ten months, I see this as the start of ten years," she told reporters at a press conference.

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