Social Democratic Party leader Magdalena Andersson poses during a news conference after being appointed Sweden’s first female prime minister at the Swedish parliament in Stockholm on Wednesday. She resigned hours later but was re-elected on Monday.
Erik Simander / TT NEWS AGENCY / AFP via Getty Images
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Erik Simander / TT NEWS AGENCY / AFP via Getty Images
Social Democratic Party leader Magdalena Andersson poses during a news conference after being appointed Sweden’s first female prime minister at the Swedish parliament in Stockholm on Wednesday. She resigned hours later but was re-elected on Monday.
Erik Simander / TT NEWS AGENCY / AFP via Getty Images
It looks like Sweden will soon have its first female prime minister. She is the same who resigned last week, only about seven hours after being tapped to lead the country.
Magdalena Andersson – a 54-year-old former finance minister who leads the Social Democrats – was re-elected by a low margin on Monday and will make history when she officially takes office on Tuesday.
Here’s what happened. Swedish lawmakers elected Andersson for the first time last Wednesday, but she decided to step down after a budget defeat in parliament prompted a coalition partner to resign.
The government rejected its own budget proposal in favor of a proposal put forward by the opposition (including right-wing Swedish Democrats), because Associated Press reported. That prompted the Greens to leave the minority two-party government.
Andersson later told a news conference that she did not “want to lead a government where there could be grounds to doubt its legitimacy.” NS BBC report that the prime minister is expected to resign if a coalition party leaves the government.
Andersson also said she would remain interested in leading a Social Democratic one-party government.
And on Monday, she won her second election in less than a week.
Of the 349 members of the Swedish parliament, known as the Riksdag, 101 members voted in favor of Andersson, 173 voted no and 75 abstained. The country’s constitution allows prime ministers to be appointed as long as a parliamentary majority (175 people) doesn’t vote against them – so that’s a close.
Andersson told reporters after the vote that she was ready to “move Sweden forward” with a platform focused on welfare, climate change and crime, according to the BBC.
English news site Local report that Andersson will officially announce his cabinet on Tuesday morning local time. The transition of power will take place immediately after a cabinet meeting to change government with the King of Sweden at the Royal Palace.
Her new government will remain in place until Sweden’s next general election, scheduled for September.
“I don’t see this as the beginning of ten months, I see this as the beginning of ten years,” she told reporters at a press conference, according to The Local.
Her election is a milestone for one of the most beautiful people in the world gender equality countries. Is the official account of Sweden Note on TwitterAndersson had 33 men ahead in his work.
This story originally appeared on NS Morning version live blogs.
