After the resignation of Stefan Löfven, Sweden’s parliament has reinstated Löfven as Prime Minister despite losing to a vote of no-confidence.
Within the Swedish system, a Prime Minister is accepted if the majority of MPs do not vote against them. In this case, Löfven’s nomination passed in the 349-seat parliament, receiving a vote of 116 for and 173 against, with 60 abstaining from the vote.
However, if Löfven fails to find majority support for a budget, he has stated that he will resign again this autumn.
Parliament Speaker, Andreas Norlén, explains, “Since less than half of the members of parliament have voted no, the chamber has approved the motion to appoint Stefan Löfven as Prime Minister.”
Löfven’s vote of no-confidence came after the Left Party removed itself from its support for the government coalition due to a dispute over proposals to end a rent cap on new-build flats. This, in turn, resulted in a collapse of the Social Democrat’s minority coalition government with the Green Party.