Sweden’s first female Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, who resigned last week after barely eight hours in office, has been re-elected by the Swedish parliament.
Prime Minister Andersson was elected on Monday by the parliament with 101 votes for her appointment, 173 against and 75 abstaining from voting. Under Swedish parliamentary rules, the appointment can only be blocked if opposition parties can muster at least 175 votes.
The new government, which will only consist of Andersson’s Social Democrats, will be the first single-party government in Sweden in the last 15 years and with just 100 seats in the 349-seat parliament, will be one of the weakest governments in decades, broadcaster SVT reports.
“We are ready to take Sweden forward,” Andersson said after her appointment as PrimeMinister and stated that her new government would be focused on several key issues, including welfare, climate change and combatting crime.
The Social Democrats have been forced to rule alone after their former coalition partners, the Greens, refused to participate in the government after it lost a crucial budget vote last week and was forced to implement a budget proposed by the right-wing opposition parties just hours after Andersson had first been voted as Prime Minister.
“Of course, I fully understand that this appears to be messy. A party that this morning voted for a prime minister who formed a government with that party has now changed its mind,” Andersson said after resigning as Prime Minister last week after only seven and a half hours in the role.
Andersson had become the country’s first female Prime Minister by just a single vote as the opposition parties reached 174 votes against her, but this time she appears to have even less support in the house. Last week’s vote saw Andersson reach 117 votes for her appointment, 16 more than Monday’s vote.
The political chaos is just the latest in Sweden this year and comes just months after former Prime minister Stefan Lovfen saw a vote of no confidence and was forced to resign, only to be re-elected as Prime Minister just weeks later.
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