Magdalena Anderson: Sweden's first female Prime Minister returns after stepping down
After political unrest, Sweden's first female prime minister was forced to resign within hours of taking office last week. Lawmakers backed Social Democratic Party leader Magdalena Anderson by a narrow margin on Monday. He will try to lead a one-party government before September's elections. He stepped down as prime minister last Thursday after his coalition fell apart.
Just hours earlier, Anderson had been elected Sweden's first female Prime Minister by one vote in Parliament. But the 54-year-old economist's plans to form a new coalition government with the Greens went awry when his budget proposal was not accepted.
Sweden's first female prime minister resigns hours after she was appointed. Instead, Parliament selects budgets from a group of opposition parties, including the far-right Swedish Democrats.
The Greens tell they would not accept the budget set by the far-right and withdrew from the government, leading to their collapse.
According to the deal, Sweden's prime minister will resign if a coalition party leaves the government. In Monday's vote in Sweden's Reichstag, 101 of the 349 lawmakers voted in favor, 75 abstained, and 173 voted against.
After the vote, Ms. Anderson said he was ready to "advance Sweden" with programs focused on prosperity, climate change, and crime at the press conference.
But without the support of parties, Ms. Anderson will struggle to pass legislation in Parliament, which has 100 of the 349 seats in the center-left Social Democrats. After a week of drama, Magdalena Anderson's career as Prime Minister is back, but Swedish political soap operas are far from over.
Ms. Anderson has yet to implement the budgets drawn up by some of his far-right rivals. In addition, he must govern a fragile minority without official support from the Greens, who have been a key coalition partner since 2014.
All of this underscores the complexities of a deeply divided eight-party parliament. As a result, some political commentators here worry that Ms. Anderson may have undermined the credibility of the entire political system.
Once formed, the new government of Ms. Anderson will remain in office until September's general election. Until then, he still had a little over nine months to prove himself to the public.
Former junior swimming champion from the university town of Uppsala, Ms. Anderson began his political career in 1996 as a political adviser to then Prime Minister Goran Persson.
He was finance minister for the past seven years before becoming chairman of the Social Democratic Party in early November. He succeeded Stefan Löfven, who had resigned as Prime Minister after seven years in office.
When Ms. Anderson took office, Mr. Lofven remained Prime Minister of the transitional government after being ousted in June's unprecedented vote of no confidence.