Sweden PM Kristersson resigns after election loss — SkimNews
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- Ulf Kristersson stepped down on Thursday after preliminary results showed his right-wing bloc lost to the centre-left by approximately 50,000 votes out of roughly 10 million ballots cast.
- Magdalena Andersson's Social Democrats-led opposition won 176 seats in the 349-seat Riksdag versus 173 for Kristersson's bloc, though results await formal certification expected this weekend.
- Andersson launched coalition talks with the Left Party, Centre Party, and Green Party; tax-policy differences risk a prolonged government formation — Sweden's 2018 talks stretched 134 days.
- The Sweden Democrats lost vote share for the first time since entering parliament in 2010, dropping three percentage points from 2022 and forfeiting the cabinet seats Kristersson had promised them.
- The Speaker of the Riksdag will now consult all parties and propose a prime ministerial candidate, who must win an MP vote to take office.
Why it matters: With Andersson's opposition winning, Sweden's center-left would resume the dominant post-WWII role it has held for most of the last century, but four-party coalition talks risk a lengthy deadlock — past Swedish formations have taken between 37 and 134 days. The Sweden Democrats' first-ever vote-share decline since 2010 marks a possible ceiling on the far right's Nordic momentum.
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