Swedish PM loses confidence vote, have to step down

STOCKHOLM: Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven will have to step down as he lost a mandatory confidence vote in Parliament here on Tuesday.

Sweden’s centre-right parties and the far-right Sweden Democrats have combined to oust the country’s centre-left Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, in a mandatory no-confidence vote following elections that left neither main political bloc with a majority.

“Our previous position that we do not have confidence in him remains,” Sweden Democrat lawmaker Mattias Karlsson said.

The anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, with 62 seats, also backed the vote to remove Lofven, but it remains unclear whether they will back an alliance government.

Lofven will stay on in a caretaker capacity until a new administration can be formed, which could take weeks.

Swedish politics have been deadlocked since the general election with both mainstream blocs claiming victory and the Sweden Democrats holding the balance of power.

The speaker of the parliament, Andreas Norlen, is now expected to meet the leaders of the eight parties represented in Sweden’s Riksdag over the next few days to determine who among them is best placed to try to piece together the country’s next government.

The speaker has four goes at picking a prime minister to form a government. If none of his choices can get enough support in parliament, a new election must be held within three months.

Most analysts expect Norlen to first approach Ulf Kristersson, leader of the Moderate party, the largest member of the four-party centre-right Alliance.

“Sweden needs a new government that has broad political support to undertake reforms,” Kristersson said moments before Tuesday’s vote, which passed by a majority of 59 in the 349-seat house.

However, the Sweden Democrats have been consistently shunned by all other Swedish political parties since entering parliament in 2010 because of their roots in the neo-Nazi movement, a policy Kristersson has pledged to maintain, and Lofven’s Social Democrats have ruled out backing an Alliance government.

The Sweden Democrat leader, Jimmie Akesson, repeated on Tuesday that his party would not hesitate bring down any government that does not give it a say on policies touching on its core concerns of immigration, healthcare, pensions and crime.

“If Ulf Kristersson wants to be prime minister, it can only happen with my help,” said Jimmie Akesson