Fredrik Erixon

Sweden’s PM is out – but for how long?

If Theresa May feels a bit disoriented and lonely – under pressure from her own friends in parliament – she could take some comfort in that she isn’t trying to run a government in Sweden.

The country’s election delivered an inconclusive result. Prime Minister Stefan Löfven and his red-green coalition government lost a lot of its support, but the four-party centre-right alliance didn’t win many new souls. No side commands a majority – or something remotely close to it. The only parties that made substantial gains were those that no other party wants to take into government – the extreme left and the populist-nationalist Sweden Democrats.

This morning the new parliament voted to kick Stefan Löfven and his government out of power. Even if it was expected, the vote felt more like a routine administrative affair over which firm should install the new coffee machines in the parliament lobby.

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