Ulf Kristersson is out as Sweden’s prime minister. On 17 September he sent his request to step down to the Speaker of Parliament, SVT reported, once the final votes from the election had been counted.
The numbers were tight. Preliminary results showed the opposition ahead of the sitting coalition by more than 50,000 votes. That translated into 176 seats for the opposition parties against 173 for the right-wing coalition.
The Speaker now takes charge of building a new government, Kristersson said. He wrote to the Speaker that the result leaves the next coalition in a hard position, because promises the parties made before the vote could stand in the way of a cabinet deal. His letter asked political forces to talk constructively, and he asked to be released from office so that negotiations could start at once.
Nothing changes overnight. Kristersson and his ministers stay at their posts until a successor government is formed. Allies and rivals alike have already thanked him for his time as head of government.
Who comes next
The centre-left bloc that led the count is headed by Magdalena Andersson of the Social Democrats, the party that governed Sweden for most of the 20th century.
Kristersson, who leads the centre-right Moderates, had campaigned on a warning about her. Earlier he told Europe that her bloc coming to power would carry security risks. He pointed out that two of the three or four parties in a possible left-wing government had voted against Sweden joining NATO.
