Sweden prime minister to resign as left-wing bloc seals narrow election win

⁠Sweden’s ⁠centre-right Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said he will resign after losing the parliamentary elections.

Sweden's Social Democratic Party, led by Former Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, finished as the biggest single party [File: AFP]

Sweden’s prime minister says he will resign after the left-wing opposition secured a narrow victory in the country’s general election, though it faces tough negotiations ahead to form a coalition government.

The vote count ended on Thursday with the Swedish Election Authority announcing that the four left-wing opposition parties won 176 seats in the 349-seat parliament in Stockholm, the Riksdag.

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list 4 of 4 Sweden expels Iran embassy employee, citing security concerns

The four parties that make up or support the outgoing conservative-led government took 173 seats, meaning that the left-wing bloc won with a slim three-seat majority .

Only about 50,000 votes separated the two sides in the country of 10.6 million people.

Shortly after the results were announced, ⁠Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said he would resign.

“Now, ‌it is the speaker who will lead the next stage of the way to a new government. I am henceforth requesting that I be relieved of the office of prime minister to allow that ⁠work to start immediately,” Kristersson ⁠said in a letter posted on social media X.

Former Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson’s centre-left Social Democrats finished as the biggest single party , despite losing some support.

The result bolsters her hope of regaining the job she lost in 2022, but she will still face a complicated task to turn it into a government due to ideological divisions within the left-leaning bloc, which is made up of the Social Democrats, the Left Party, the Greens Party and the Centre Party.

Andersson, who was Sweden’s first female prime minister in 2021-2022 and was finance minister for seven years before that, will notably need to reconcile differences between the socialist Left Party and the liberal Centre Party.

The Centre Party has said it will oppose a government that includes cabinet posts for the Left Party, which has insisted on having a minister. Andersson has meanwhile ruled out a government that includes the Left Party, but wants their support in Sweden’s parliament.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who leads one of the few left-wing governments in Europe, hailed the result.

“Social democracy has won the elections in Sweden. After four years of a right-wing government with the far right, the Swedes are once again backing the welfare state, social justice and the green agenda,” Sanchez said in a post to X.

Parliament can vote on a new prime minister on September 29 at the earliest.

Kristersson said on election night that he would respect Andersson’s attempts to form a government, but wished her “good luck” given the divisions among her left-wing bloc.

Meanwhile, in a big surprise, the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, which entered parliament in 2010, lost support for the first time , garnering 17.5 percent of the vote, down three percentage points from the last election in 2022.

瑞典中右翼首相乌尔夫·克里斯特松表示，在议会选举失利后，他将辞职。

由前首相玛格达莱娜·安德森领导的瑞典社会民主党成为第一大党。[图片：法新社]

瑞典首相表示，尽管左翼反对派在全国大选中以微弱优势获胜，但他仍将辞职。不过，组建联合政府仍面临艰难的谈判。

周四，计票结束，瑞典选举委员会宣布，四个左翼反对党在斯德哥尔摩议会（瑞典语：Riksdag）349个席位中赢得了176个席位。

瑞典中左翼政党领先三席（共四份名单之一），计票仍在进行中

瑞典大选形势胶着，极右翼势力逐渐失去优势（共4条结果，此为第2条）。

列表 3/4 “煽动愤怒”失败：斯德哥尔摩郊区庆祝极右翼选举失利

瑞典以安全担忧为由驱逐伊朗大使馆雇员（共4起，此为第4起）

组成或支持即将卸任的保守党领导的政府的四个政党共获得 173 个席位，这意味着左翼联盟以微弱的三席多数获胜。

在这个拥有 1060 万人口的国家，双方的票数差距只有大约 5 万张。

结果公布后不久，总理乌尔夫·克里斯特松表示他将辞职。

“现在，议长将引领新政府的组建进入下一个阶段。我在此请求解除总理职务，以便这项工作能够立即开始，”克里斯特森在社交媒体X上发布的一封信中说道。

尽管失去了一些支持，但前总理玛格达莱娜·安德森领导的中左翼社会民主党最终成为最大的单一政党。

这一结果增强了她重获2022年失去的职位的希望，但由于由社会民主党、左翼党、绿党和中间党组成的左倾联盟内部存在意识形态分歧，她仍将面临组建政府的复杂任务。

安德森曾于 2021 年至 2022 年担任瑞典首位女首相，此前还担任了七年的财政部长。她尤其需要调和社会主义左翼党和自由主义中间党之间的分歧。

中间党表示，将反对任何包含左翼党内阁职位的政府，左翼党一直坚持要拥有一位部长席位。与此同时，安德森排除了组建包含左翼党的政府的可能性，但他希望获得左翼党在瑞典议会的支持。

西班牙首相佩德罗·桑切斯领导着欧洲为数不多的左翼政府之一，他对选举结果表示欢迎。

“社会民主党在瑞典大选中获胜。在经历了四年极右翼右翼政府的统治之后，瑞典人再次支持福利国家、社会正义和绿色议程，”桑切斯在给 X 的一篇帖子中写道。

议会最早可在9月29日对新总理进行投票表决。

克里斯特森在选举之夜表示，他将尊重安德森组建政府的努力，但鉴于她所在的左翼阵营内部存在分歧，他祝安德森“好运”。

与此同时，出人意料的是，2010 年进入议会的反移民瑞典民主党首次失去支持，仅获得 17.5% 的选票，比 2022 年上次选举下降了 3 个百分点。