STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Swedish parliament for the second time in less than a week elected Social Democrat Magdalena Andersson as new prime minister on Monday, leaving the country’s first female premier to navigate a fragmented and fraught political landscape.
The former finance minister won a similar vote last week but threw in the towel only hours later after a junior coalition partner abandoned the government over a lost budget vote.
Andersson will now form a minority government consisting only of her own party.
The Social Democrats hold 100 seats in the 349-seat parliament and will have to rely on support from several other parties to implement policy. Not since 1979 has a government commanded so little direct support in parliament.
Complicating the picture, Andersson will have to govern on a budget in part formulated by three opposition parties, including the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, whose gains over the past decade lie at heart of Sweden’s political turmoil.
Her tenuous hold on power is due to a deadlocked parliament where neither the centre-left nor centre-right can form a majority on their own.
An election due in September next year may not bring any further clarity as polls show little change in the overall political balance.
(Reporting by Niklas Pollard, Simon Johnson and Johan Ahlander, editing by Niklas Pollard)
