Sweden’s razor-thin parliamentary election has prompted Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson to announce his resignation. But unlike in the United States, an election result does not automatically determine who becomes Sweden’s next prime minister.
Four days after Swedes went to the polls, the country now has a much clearer picture of what comes next.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson announced on Thursday that he will resign after the latest nationwide count gave the four opposition parties 176 seats in the 349-seat Riksdag, compared with 173 seats for the four parties that supported the outgoing government.
The current allocation was reported Thursday by Reuters and the Associated Press.
Social Democratic leader and former Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson is now expected to be central to the talks over forming a new government. But the election arithmetic does not automatically make her prime minister.
That is because Sweden’s system works very differently from the American presidential system.
First: Is the election result actually final?
Not yet in the formal legal sense.
Sweden held its parliamentary election on September 13. The county administrative boards began the final count the following day, including votes that were not included in the election-night count.
The latest tally produces the 176–173 split that led Kristersson to announce his resignation. However, Sweden’s Election Authority, Valmyndigheten, says the formally determined result for the Riksdag is expected to be ready around a week after election day, during the weekend following the vote.
So while the political picture is clear enough for government-formation talks to begin, the formal election process is still being completed.
What happens to Ulf Kristersson now?
Kristersson has announced that he intends to step down as prime minister.
Under Sweden’s constitutional system, when a prime minister resigns, the entire government resigns with him or her.
That does not mean Sweden suddenly has no government.
According to the Riksdag, the outgoing government remains in place as a caretaker government until a new one takes office. It continues to handle ongoing government business but, by convention, does not launch major new political initiatives.
At that point, much of the attention moves from the prime minister to a figure who plays a particularly important role in Sweden’s parliamentary system: the Speaker of the Riksdag.
The Speaker takes over the process
Swedish voters do not directly elect a prime minister.
They elect the 349 members of the Riksdag. The Speaker then has the task of finding a candidate for prime minister who can be accepted by Parliament.
After a government resigns, the Speaker meets with representatives of the parliamentary parties and assesses which candidate may be able to form a government that the Riksdag will tolerate.
The outgoing Speaker can begin those discussions immediately. The newly elected Riksdag will meet on September 28, when members will elect a Speaker and three Deputy Speakers for the new parliamentary term. If a new Speaker is chosen, that person takes over the government-formation process. The formal opening of the new parliamentary year follows on September 29.
Sweden does not require a prime minister to win a majority of “yes” votes
This is where Swedish politics can seem particularly unusual to American readers.
Sweden uses what is often called negative parliamentarism.
A proposed prime minister is rejected only if at least 175 of the Riksdag’s 349 members vote against the candidate. If fewer than 175 members vote no, the candidate is approved — even without a majority voting yes.
Abstentions therefore matter considerably during Swedish government negotiations.
Once the Speaker believes a candidate can survive that vote, the name is presented to the Riksdag. The vote must then take place within four days of the proposal being presented, according to the Riksdag.
Does 176 seats mean the opposition has already agreed on a government?
No.
The preliminary seat allocation gives the Social Democrats 99 seats, the Left Party 30, the Centre Party 25 and the Green Party 22 — together, 176 seats.
That describes the parliamentary arithmetic. It does not mean those four parties have agreed to govern together, nor does it determine which parties would sit in a future cabinet.
The Speaker’s task is therefore not simply to identify which side has more seats. It is to determine whether a candidate can assemble enough support — including possible abstentions — to survive a prime-minister vote.
Negotiations over the shape of a future government can consequently take time.
How long could it take?
There is no fixed number of days in which a new government must be completed.
Recent Swedish history shows just how different the timeline can be. After the 2022 election, Magdalena Andersson submitted her resignation on September 15 and Ulf Kristersson was approved as the new prime minister on October 17.
After the 2018 election, the process was considerably longer: it took 134 days before Stefan Löfven was approved as prime minister again, according to the Riksdag’s account of previous government formations.
The Speaker can put forward a candidate for prime minister up to four times. If all four proposals are rejected by at least 175 members, an extraordinary election must be held within three months.
So what should Swedes abroad watch for next?
The next major steps are the completion of the formal election result, Kristersson’s resignation process, talks between the Speaker and the parliamentary parties, and the first meeting of the newly elected Riksdag on September 28.
Only after those negotiations will Sweden know exactly which parties will form the next government — and who will serve as prime minister.
For now, the election has settled the composition of Parliament closely enough to trigger a change in government. The next chapter is about turning 349 newly allocated seats into a government that the Riksdag is willing to accept.
Featured image credit: Ninni Andersson/Government Offices of Sweden.
