Social Democrat Magdalena Andersson, Sweden’s first female prime minister, was announced as leader on Wednesday but resigned after her coalition partner quit the government and her budget failed to pass, the BBC reports.
But Andersson said she hoped to be appointed prime minister again as the head of a single-party government.
“I have asked the speaker to be relieved of my duties as prime minister,” Ms Andersson told adding that she is ready to be prime minister in a single-party, Social Democrat government.
“There is a constitutional practice that a coalition government should resign when one party quits,” the Social Democrat said on Wednesday. “I don’t want to lead a government whose legitimacy will be questioned.”
The reason why she was elected is that under Swedish law, she only needed a majority of MPs not to vote against her.
Of the 349 members of the parliamenr, 174 voted against her. But on top of the 117 MPs who backed Ms Andersson, a further 57 abstained, giving her victory by a single vote.
What perfectly shows the complexities of Swedish politics is that if there is another prime ministerial vote, Ms Andersson will probably get voted in again. Although the Green party has promised to support her, she would be in a vulnerable position in a fragile minority government and would still have to stick to the right-wing budget already voted on by parliament.
