Sweden’s first female Prime Minister resigns hours after selection

Sweden’s first ever woman Prime Minister has resigned just hours after she was selected by a hung parliament.

We reported her win and hours later she was no longer in office. Maybe she didn’t even pick her cabinet.

Magdalena Andersson, 54, made history on Wednesday but had to resign just hours later after her Party’s coalition partner dumped the government and her budget failed to pass.

The Swedish Parliament or Riksdag instead accepted the opposition’s budget. Andersson gave her resignation letter to the speaker as she no longer had the majority’s support.

Andersson was never elected by the majority vote, but instead was selected because she didn’t get enough votes against her nomination.

Under Swedish law, a candidate is accepted as the Prime Minister even if they don’t get the required votes to win. However, there is a catch, as they must also not get the majority of votes against them.

Her government’s coalition partner, the Green Party, refused to vote in favor of her proposed budget. Since Andersson no longer had support, she was left with no choice but to resign.

She now hopes to form a majority government in the next elections. Andersson received a standing ovation when she was accepted as PM.

Out of 349 Riksdag members, 174 voted against her. Only 117 voted in her favor, and 57 abstained, consequentially letting her win by a single vote.

Andersson would never have been accepted as the PM if one extra member voted against her.

Before her win, Sweden never had a woman as Prime Minister. Although, the Green Party did not support her proposed budget, it has vowed to support her if she runs again, but Andersson doesn’t seem interested until her Party gets the single largest majority.