“If Stefan Löfven and the government do not resign voluntarily we are going to vote for them to be unseated once the parliament returns,” Ulf Kristersson said in a written comment sent to the TT newswire. 

 

He questioned Löfven’s claim to lead the bloc with the “greatest support in parliament”. 

 

“The final result if now complete, and the Alliance continues to be the biggest potential government, significantly larger than the current government,” he said. “If Stefan Löfven wants to try and build a government out of his ‘bloc’, together with the Left Party and the Green Party, he should say it in black and white.” 

 

The final vote count left the allocation of seats unchanged, with 144 seats shared by the Social Democrats, Green Party and Left Party, 143 going to the four centre-right Alliance parties, and 62 seats to the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats. 

 

This means both sides are well short of the 175 seats needed to have a majority. 

 

Löfven was the first to comment once the final tally was announced, arguing that as the largest party leading the largest parliamentary grouping, the Social Democrats should lead Sweden's next government. 

 

“The final election result shows that we Social Democrats are clearly the largest party and have the biggest support for a government if the right-wing parties do not break their promise and create a common bloc with the Sweden Democrats,” he said. 

 

There was, he reiterated, only one “constructive solution for the good of the country: to break with bloc politics”.

 

“Now all upstanding parties must take their responsibility to push Sweden forward,” he said. “In this process, no one is going to manage to achieve their party's policy program in its entirety. But through cooperation we can do so much more for our country.” 

 

While the four centre-right parties ruled Sweden as a tightly coordinated bloc between 2006 and 2014, the Social Democrats have never entered into coalition with the Left Party, and have only gone into coalition with the Green Party once, from 2014-2018.

 

Aron Etzler, the party secretary for the Left Party on Sunday said his party would be willing to take part in a Social Democrat-led government. 

 

Kristersson has been pushing Löfven to resign as prime minister since the night of the election last Sunday. 

 

On Wednesday, the four Alliance parties invited the Social Democrats to join them in talks over a deal across the political centre.

 

The aim was form a government which did not require the support of the Sweden Democrats, a party which the leaders of Sweden’s other political parties has said they will not negotiate or do deals with . 

 

“The Alliance is offering the Social Democrats the possibility of playing a new, constructive role,” Centre Party leader Annie Lööf told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper after the Alliance leaders’ joint article was published. 

 

Löfven immediately rebuffed the office. 

 

“The Social Democrats are being offered the chance of being a support party for the right-wing bloc,” he said. “That is a thought that should be completely dismissed.” 

 

Sweden's parliament is set to open on September 25th.