STOCKHOLM, Oct 26 (Reuters) – Swedish Centre Party leader Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist said on Monday she was handing the process of forming a government back to parliament speaker Andreas Norlen, as widely expected, after he tasked her a week ago with trying.
An election last month gave the centre-left bloc a narrow majority in parliament, but while all four opposition parties favour Social Democrats leader Magdalena Andersson as prime minister, they do not agree on who should be part of a new government.
• Ringqvist told reporters on Monday that there was no majority for a centrist government
• “There is a clear demand for solutions that can bring together a broader majority,” she said
• “However, the parliamentary situation makes it difficult at present to translate that support into a government,” she added
• Andersson earlier this month lost a parliament vote to form a government, as widely expected
• Speaker Norlen said in a statement he will now discuss with party representatives how to move forward with the government formation process
• He could decide to schedule a new parliament vote for prime minister regardless, or hand the task of government formation to the leader of another party
(Reporting by Niklas Pollard and Louise Rasmussen, editing by Stine Jacobsen)
