Sweden's Centre Party leader gives up on government talks, returning task to parliament speaker

Another failed attempt

Sweden's Centre Party leader Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist told reporters on Monday, 26 October, that she had failed to form a government, about six weeks after the 13 September election. Parliament speaker Andreas Norlén had asked her to build a centrist government without the Left Party, the Greens or the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats. Her preferred option was a combination of the Centre and the Social Democrats, the party led by Magdalena Andersson. The Left Party and the Greens rejected that model outright, and the Moderates of caretaker prime minister Ulf Kristersson were left outside the arithmetic after their own right-wing coalition failed at the last election. Ringqvist said the talks had shown broad support for centrist policies but no majority for a centrist government.

In her remarks to reporters, she put the problem in parliamentary terms.

“There is a clear demand for solutions that can bring together a broader majority.”

The parliamentary situation, she said, made it hard to turn that support into a government.

Where the process stands

Norlén now has two main options: ask another party leader to explore a government, or schedule a new parliamentary vote on a candidate for prime minister, which he can do regardless of the outcome of the talks. He said he would speak with the party leaders and then inform the public, but he gave no timeframe. The speaker has four attempts in total to put a candidate for prime minister to a vote, and if the fourth attempt fails, a new election must be called. Only one attempt has been used so far. On 15 October parliament refused Andersson the post of prime minister, after it rejected her proposal for a single-party Social Democratic government.

Election arithmetic and long talks

The centre-left opposition won 176 seats in the 13 September election, against 173 for the right-wing bloc led by Kristersson, a margin Reuters described as narrow. All four opposition parties back Andersson as prime minister, but they do not agree on who should join her government. The Centre rules out cooperation with the Sweden Democrats and the Left Party, while the Left Party and the Greens rejected the Centre and Social Democrat option.

Centre-left opposition176

Kristersson's right-wing bloc173

Centre-left opposition

176 seats

Kristersson's right-wing bloc

173 seats

Data from the article text

Sweden is used to long negotiations over forming governments. After the 2022 election the process took 37 days, while after 2018 it took 134 days. The current deadlock is about six weeks old, and Norlén has not yet named a timeframe for his next decision.

2018 election134

2022 election37

2018 election

134 days

2022 election

37 days

Data from the article text