Drama about the formation of a government in Sweden: political poker in Stockholm

Surprise for Sweden's top social democrat: two weeks after the parliamentary elections, Magdalena Andersson is calling off her attempt to form a government. She said on Monday that she saw no possibility of this in the current situation. In doing so, she gave the exploratory order back to the President of Parliament - and that was exactly what her reasoning was about.

The Left Party had previously announced that it would support the moderate candidate in the upcoming election of a new parliamentary speaker, i.e. the previous incumbent Andreas Norlén, who was brought into office by the conservative-right government of Ulf Kristersson that had just been voted out.

As his role requires, Norlén commissioned the leader of the Social Democrats to hold exploratory talks on forming a government after the parliamentary elections. With a few days delay, when all the votes in the extremely exciting race were finally counted and the narrow majority of the left-green party spectrum was determined with 176 of 349 seats.

However, it was clear from the start that it would be difficult or impossible to convert this victory into a government if someone did not deviate from his “red lines” soon. In addition to the Social Democrats, the Greens, the Center Party and the Left Party belong to the left wing. However, the Center Party did not want to talk to the Left Party until it gave up its claims to participate directly in the government.

The Left Party made it clear in the election campaign that it no longer wanted to be a purely supporting party for a minority government, just as the Center Party made its traditional “red line” against a coalition with parties on the far left or far right. The old Peasants' Party reportedly agreed to support a purely social democratic minority government. To govern, Andersson needs the votes of all parties on the left spectrum. Instead of a surprising solution to the entrenched contradictions, it now came with an end to this attempt at unification.

Andersson claimed that the Left Party had now entered into completely new parliamentary connections when it came to parliamentary president - with the moderates on the other side of the political spectrum. Then one of these parties should be given the mandate to explore. The Left Party, on the other hand, does not view its decision for Norlén as party political. She had previously justified her support for him by saying that it could take a while until Sweden had a new government. A fixed point in the Reichstag with the established and experienced president is therefore good.

According to Swedish media on Monday, party leader Nooshi Dadgostar emphasized the obvious: Andersson is still her candidate for head of government. “We are confident that Magdalena Andersson will now rally the red-green camp.” In Sweden, the social democrat's behavior is seen as a reaction to the Left Party's political poker on the question of government participation. This makes the unsolved problem in the left wing seem even more complicated. Criticism of the Left's actions came not only from the Social Democrats, but also from the Greens.

In any case, Andreas Norlén was confirmed as President of Parliament on Monday with 200 votes. The Social Democrats' candidate, Johanna Haraldsson, received 146 votes and will be his deputy. Now the old and new president must reassign the task of forming a government. The only thing that is clear so far is that there is no one with clear options.