Magdalena Andersson abandoned her initial attempt to form a new government on Monday. This followed the Left Party’s decision to vote for the Moderate Party’s candidate for Speaker.
At a press conference announcing his decision to reappoint Andersson as sonderingsperson, the parliament's Speaker, Andreas Norlén, said that he considered that the underlying parliamentary situation had not changed as a result of the dispute of the Speaker election, and still believed that Andersson has the best chance of building a workable coalition.
He said he did not believe that Andersson's decision to abandon her attempt meant that the role should now pass to Moderate leader Ulf Kristersson, as Andersson suggested on Monday.
"I can state that the basic political and parliamentary conditions are exactly the same now as they were when Magdalena Andersson first received the assignment," he said.
"That is to say, it is exactly the same result. It is the same distribution of mandates. It is the same parties that are naming her as their main candidate for prime minister and those parties continue to have a majority in the parliament. For this reason, it is reasonable that she should resume her exploratory work."
Andersson's task will formally begin on Monday, October 5th and Andersson has been asked to report back to him on October 12th, when she will be able to either request more time for negotiations or submit a final report on her progress, in which case her candidacy will be put to a vote in the parliament within four days.
In a statement on Facebook, Andersson said she welcomed the announcement.
"I will consider over the weekend how I can take the process forward. I hope that other parties will also consider their positions. The way forward requires that all political forces act constructively, and put the best interests of Sweden and the Swedish people first."
"As part of exploratory task given to me by the speaker, I will continue to hold broad discussions with the other parties to find a way forward."
Norlén said that he and Andersson had also agreed that the appointment should be followed by a parliamentary vote.
He said that he did not see her reappointment as a change in the process of changing sonderingsperson in each round, saying he saw Andersson's decision to hand back the role as "a sort of hiccup, a knot in the thread", meaning that this was a continuation of the first round rather than a new one.
"We are putting the turbulence that has been during the week behind us," he said.
Asked whether he would allow another sonderingsperson to hand back the role without having to have their candidacy put to a vote in the parliament, he refused to rule it out, but said that “if you get an assignment, it is good if you complete it”.
You can see The Local's Richard Orange discuss some of the alternatives for Sweden's next government in the video below:
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