Sweden: PM Magdalena Andersson Resigns as Far-Right Makes Gains in Elections

Magdalena Andersson. 

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/@sweden.se)

Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson on Wednesday, 14 September, announced her resignation after an unprecedented right-wing and far-right coalition clinched a nail-biting general election over the weekend.

"In parliament, they have a one or two seat advantage," she said. "It's a thin majority, but it is a majority."

"So, tomorrow, I will hand in my resignation as prime minister, and the responsibility for the continued process will go to the speaker," Andersson added.

Out of the parliament's 349 seats, the right-wing coalition won 176, even though the Social Democrats remained the largest party with more than 30 percent of the vote.

According to the final tally, the right bloc won 49.6 percent of votes, while the left bloc secured 48.9 percent.

Ulf Kristersson, whose Moderate party came third in the elections with 19 of the poll and who is now pegged to become the new prime minister, told voters that "now we will have order in Sweden."

Talking about the gains of the far-right, Jonas Hinnfors, a politics professor at Gothenburg University, said that "this is a historic moment, an era has come to an end."

"We don't yet know the magnitude of the change to come, but for the past 50 or 60 years there has been a steady development towards broadly social liberal values, individual freedoms and minority rights, to which both left and right have contributed. Whatever happens now, depending on the extent that the SD will be able to exert influence, that development has probably come to an end and we will see a rolling back of some of the things we have taken for granted," he added, as reported by The Guardian.

(With inputs from The Guardian and AFP.)