Sweden’s first attempt to form a government after the controversial parliamentary election held earlier in September has collapsed after Social Democratic leader Magdalena Andersson returned her mandate on Monday, exposing the seemingly unresolvable conflict between the Centre Party (C) and the far-left Left Party (V).
Andersson had been tasked by Speaker Andreas Norlén on 18 September with exploring a government based on the four parties that defeated the outgoing right-wing Tidö bloc. Their parliamentary majority is real but extremely narrow: S holds 99 seats, V 30, C 25 and the Greens 22, giving them 176 of the Riksdag’s 349 seats. The Tidö parties—Moderates, Sweden Democrats, Christian Democrats (KD) and Liberals (L)—hold 173.
The problem for the left bloc is that C and V refuse to accept each other’s conditions. V leader Nooshi Dadgostar has said her party will only vote for a government in which it participates. Centre leader Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist has drawn the opposite red line: C will not allow V into government, citing deep differences over economic policy as well as long-standing concerns about the party’s security-policy record and Communist past. She previously said C would rather face an early election than accept V ministers.
The confrontation escalated when V announced it would support Moderate Andreas Norlén for Speaker rather than the Social Democrats’ candidate. V officially cited Norlén’s experience and perceived neutrality, while Swedish political commentators interpreted the move as a pressure tactic aimed at showing S that V would not abandon its demands for government influence. The decision nevertheless demonstrated that Andersson had failed to unite her nominal 176-seat majority.
‘The problem for the left bloc is that C and V refuse to accept each other’s conditions’
‘I can…conclude that at present there is no possibility for me to form a government,’ Andersson said on Monday. She added that it was now ‘reasonable’ for the constellation that had come together over the speakership to try to reach an agreement on government formation.
That opens a new opportunity for caretaker prime minister Ulf Kristersson. The Moderate leader has said that, if given the chance, he wants to explore cooperation among five parties around a common economic programme, while also stressing that SD’s participation in government is not automatic.
SD is a hard-right anti-immigration party, often labelled by political opponents as ‘far-right’, and until 2022 mainstream and leftist parties maintained a cordon sanitaire, or political firewall, around it. The outgoing Tidö coalition was supported by SD from outside, but party leader Jimmie Åkesson explicitly campaigned on the promise of moving SD inside a potential Tidö 2.0.
The fact that the Centre Party, which secured 25 seats, has become the kingmaker makes the latter promise very difficult, if not impossible, to deliver. The centrists apply the same principle to both V and SD: C rejects supporting a government in which either party is a member, or even one supported by either party from the outside.
Nevertheless, if C joins S, V and MP in voting against Kristersson, they have 176 votes—enough to stop him. If C abstains, only 151 MPs from S, V and MP remain against him, below the 175 votes required to reject a prime minister under Sweden’s negative parliamentarism.
‘If C abstains, only 151 MPs from S, V and MP remain against him, below the 175 votes required to reject a prime minister’
The deadlock follows a true nail-biter of an election already marred by mounting controversies. Swedish authorities are handling six investigations into suspected electoral fraud, with almost all of them concerning heavily immigrant-populated districts in the Stockholm area, alongside a separate investigation involving two Somali-Swedish Left Party politicians in Borlänge. Allegations in Järva have also concerned the personal-vote campaign of Somali-origin V MP Ilyas Hassan.
The controversy is particularly significant because mobilization in immigrant-heavy districts played a major role in deciding such a narrow election. Reuters found that the centre-left gained around 73,000 votes compared with 2022 across 786 districts where at least half of residents were foreign-born or had two foreign-born parents. SVT’s exit poll had also found that 70 per cent of voters with non-European backgrounds supported the four opposition parties, compared with 27 per cent backing Tidö.
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