Magdalena Anderson was re-elected today (Monday) in the Swedish parliament to the first woman prime minister, five days after she was first elected only to resign after less than eight hours due to the break-up of the coalition over the budget vote.
Stormy applause erupted in the Riksdag Hall as chairman Andreas Norlan announced that less than half of the 349 deputies had voted against the appointment thus allowing Anderson to win the post again. 173 MPs voted against Anderson, 101 supported and 75 abstained.
Anderson, who will officially take office tomorrow after a meeting with King Carl XVI Gustav, is set to lead the Social Democrats’ minority government until the September general election.
Last Wednesday, Anderson was elected prime minister for the first time, even this time after a majority of MPs against the appointment was not obtained. A few hours later, however, Parliament approved the budget proposal of the right-wing opposition parties – the Conservative moderates, the Swedish Democrats and the Christian Democrats.
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Following this, the Green Party decided to leave the coalition as they are unwilling to act on the budget of the right. As a result, Anderson was forced to announce her resignation even though she had not yet officially entered office. However, the Greens have announced that they will support its reappointment even though they will not return to the coalition.
Anderson, 54, has served as finance minister for the past seven years and earlier this month was elected leader of the Social Democrats. She replaces Stefan Leben, who has served since 2014, but last June became the first prime minister to lose a no-confidence vote. Shortly afterwards, he was re-elected by a narrow two-vote majority, but made it clear that he was committed to resigning to allow the replacement to prepare the party for the September 2022 election.
Despite being a country that has promoted gender equality for years, Sweden is the last of the Scandinavian countries where no woman has served as prime minister. In Denmark, Finland and Iceland, women currently serve as prime ministers, while in Norway Arena Solberg served for seven years until she was replaced following a loss in the election.
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