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Sweden’s center-left government resigned on Monday, but Prime Minister Stefan Lofven refused to call a quick election, saying he would try to form a new coalition to break a parliamentary blockade sparked by the rise of a nationalist party.
“With one year to go before the regular elections and the extraordinary situation the country is in with the ongoing pandemic and the special challenges it would pose, the fast elections are not the best for Sweden,” he said. Lofven at a press conference on Monday.
He said the decision to resign had been “the toughest” he had ever had to make.
The resignation of the prime minister means that the speaker of the Swedish parliament is making four attempts to try to find a new government. Sweden’s traditional left-right policy has been shaken by the emergence of Sweden’s nationalist democrats, who entered parliament in 2010 and are now the third largest party.
Political experts say it is not true that a new government can be formed. It took Lofven four months in 2018 to form a minority coalition between his Social Democrats and the Greens, which was backed in parliament by two center-right parties, the Center and the Liberals, as well as the communist left-wing party.
The current political crisis was sparked by the fact that the Left Party teamed up with Swedish Democrats and other opposition groups, leading to the first successful censorship vote against an incumbent Swedish Prime Minister.
The Center party has said it is willing to negotiate with Lofven, but not with Democrats from the Left or Sweden. Center has withdrawn its demand for reform of rental controls, the issue that led the left to vote against the government.
But the main center-right opposition party, the moderates, could fight to form its own coalition, as it is unlikely to get a majority even with the support of Sweden’s Democrats and Liberals.
“Now the speaker of parliament has to look at alternative options, but there is no obvious path to a new government,” former center-right Prime Minister Carl Bildt wrote on Twitter.
One possibility, previously used in neighboring Finland, as well as in Germany and Iceland, would be a grand coalition between the Social Democrats and the center-right parties.
Lofven told the Financial Times on Monday: “I have not ruled it out. If the country gets into a situation that requires it, yes, I am open. But I can’t see it right now. “
He added that the speedy elections would take four months to hold and even then there was no guarantee that they would give a clearer parliamentary image. Since two possible scenarios for health authorities are for an increase in Covid cases from August, Lofven said it would be better to try to form a coalition from the current parliament rather than “deliver” it to voters.
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