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Magdalena Andersson gets second shot at becoming Sweden’s next prime minister

Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson will get another chance to become Sweden's first female prime minister, after the speaker of parliament said he would nominate her for the office a second time.

Published: 25 November 2021 14:50 CET
Updated: 25 November 2021 17:22 CET

Magdalena Andersson gets second shot at becoming Sweden's next prime minister

Prime minister candidate Magdalena Andersson. Photo: Jessica Gow/TT

The Swedish parliament is now set to again vote on Andersson as prime minister on Monday.

Speaker Andreas Norlén made the announcement on Thursday afternoon after having met with the leaders of Sweden’s eight parties.

He said he would re-nominate Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson, who resigned on Wednesday just hours after having been confirmed by parliament as the country’s next prime minister.

EXPLAINED:

Who is the prime minister of Sweden right now?

What you need to know about Sweden’s next budget

Andersson’s resignation was sparked by the junior Green Party choosing to quit the government coalition after parliament passed a right-wing opposition budget with amendments co-authored by the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats.

The usually cautiously soft-spoken Norlén criticised the Green Party on Thursday for not informing him in advance that they were planning to quit the government if the left-wing coalition’s budget failed, before he nominated Andersson as prime minister the first time around.

“In that case I obviously would not have nominated Magdalena Andersson on Monday. I would have waited until after the budget vote,” he told a press conference. He said that the fact that a government had to resign hours after being elected “risked damaging trust” in Sweden’s political system, but stopped short of criticising Andersson, saying that the Green Party’s decision had seemed to come as a surprise to her, too.

Andersson is expected to be re-elected, with the Centre Party, Left Party and Green Party confirming they will approve (or accept, as a prime ministerial vote needs no more than a majority of abstentions) her nomination just like they did the first time.

Her minority government is then expected to be a one-party cabinet made up of only Social Democrat ministers.

NOW WHAT? What will happen next in Sweden’s political drama?

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Swedish PM won't end Sweden Democrats collaboration over 'troll factory'

During a press conference following a party leader debate in parliament, Kristersson, from the Moderates, was asked whether he, as prime minister, would put any pressure on the Sweden Democrats to stop using the anonymous accounts, which had been used to spread content of benefit to the party and degrade its political opponents.

He replied saying that he cannot make demands or take responsibility for the actions of the Sweden Democrats’ communications department.

“If your real question is: ‘Do you want to stop working together to solve Sweden’s major problems because I have strong objections to smear campaigns in Swedish politics’, then the answer is no,” he said.

He did, however, say that he had discussed the issue with Åkesson both in public and in private.

“[I’ve told him] that I dislike smear campaigns, that they need to answer legitimate questions put to them by the media, political opponents and coalition partners. And that I dislike anonymous accounts.”

He added that the Sweden Democrats should “moderate their tone”.

The Sweden Democrats had not only been using the accounts to smear opposition parties, but also the governing coalition of the Liberals, Moderates and Christian Democrats, which the party provides its support to under the Tidö Agreement, named after the castle where it was drawn up.

The Tidö Agreement includes a clause requiring all four parties to “speak respectfully” about each other.

In one clip from the Kalla Fakta documentary revealing the existence of the troll factory, Sweden Democrat communications head Joakim Wallerstein tells the group of troll factory workers to “find shit” on the Christian Democrats’ top candidate for the EU parliament, Alice Teodorescu Måwe, while others make fun of Liberal leader Johan Pehrson.

In another, one of the employees in the troll factory discusses what type of music to use when he should “shit on” the Moderates.

Anti-racism magazine Expo also reported that the Sweden Democrats had used their anonymous accounts to share white power material.

Since Kalla Fakta’s documentary was released, Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson has responded by claiming that Swedish media are carrying out their own campaign against his party, calling the documentary part of a “domestic smear campaign from the left-liberal establishment”.

LISTEN: Uncovering a Sweden Democrat troll factory

Kristersson did not wish to comment on Åkesson’s response, but he disagreed that Swedish media and political parties are carrying out a smear or influence campaign.

“I definitely perceive influence operations from other countries, and we often feed back to you [the media] and tell you what we know about those things. I obviously do not perceive any influence operations from parties, media or anyone else in Sweden.”

As far as Åkesson’s claims that Kalla Fakta had “infiltrated” the Sweden Democrats, Kristersson said that it would be “completely foreign to me to interfere with how free media operate in a free democracy”.

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