Deadlock ends as Löfven gets new term as Swedish PM

Radio Sweden
Posted: Friday, January 18, 2019 at 10:04 — Last Updated: Friday, January 18, 2019 at 11:17
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Social Democrat leader Stefan Löfven (right) smiles after being elected for a second term as prime minister on January 18, 2019 at the Swedish parliament Riksdagen in Stockholm. – Sweden ended a four-month political vacuum when lawmakers elected Prime Minister Stefan Löfven to a second term, after he elbowed out the far-right to save one of Europe’s few left-wing governments. (Jessica Gow/AFP/Getty Images)

Sweden ended four months of political stalemate on Friday when parliament elected Stefan Löfven as prime minister for a second term, leading a Social Democrat/Green party coalition government.

In the third prime minister vote since the September 9 election, Löfven avoided a majority of MPs voting against him, with the Left Party, Liberals, and Centre Party abstaining.

After four months of wrangling, Löfven secured the backing of the Centre and Liberal parties who had ruled out supporting their two partners in the centre-right Alliance if it meant a Moderate/Christian Democrat government reliant on the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats.

However, the Prime Minister’s agreement with the Centre and Liberal parties has come at a price, with a committment to run a number of neo-Liberal policies, previously unthinkable in a Social Democrat led government.

Stefan Löfven will now work on filling his ministerial posts with his coalition partners in the Green party.