Sweden Deadlock: Andersson Hands Back Mandate Despite Centre-Left’s 176-Seat Majority
Sweden government deadlock is now the honest description of Swedish politics: the centre-left bloc won the 13 September election with 176 of the Riksdag's 349 seats, yet nobody in it says she can form a government. Social Democratic leader Magdalena Andersson told a Monday press conference, Reuters reported, that "there is currently no possibility for me to form a government." She is handing back the exploratory mandate Speaker Andreas Norlén gave her on 18 September, so the next move in the Sweden government deadlock now belongs to him.
What broke her attempt was a vote on a different job entirely. On Sunday the Left Party said it would back Norlén, a Moderate, for another term as speaker rather than the Social Democrats' own nominee, Johanna Haraldsson. Norlén won on Monday by 200 vot...