EditAndersson abandons bid to form Sweden’s government after the Left backs a Moderate Speaker
A three-seat centre-left edge collapses into cross-vetoes - and a Dalarna vote probe still hangs over the count
Magdalena Andersson has handed back the mandate to form a Swedish government. The trigger was not a lost confidence vote. It was the Left Party’s decision to re-elect a Moderate as Speaker of the Riksdag.
On Monday 28 September the Social Democrat leader told a press conference there was “at present no possibility” for her to put a cabinet together. The Left, she said, had created “a new constellation” by lining up with the Moderates behind the outgoing Speaker, Andreas Norlén. The Social Democrats had intended to field their own candidate. With Left votes, Norlén already had a majority. He was later re-elected with 200 votes. Andersson returned the exploratory mandate she had held since 18 September, ten days after the 13 September election.
The arithmetic that looked simple on election night never was. The centre-left bloc took 176 seats to 173 for the outgoing right, on a national margin of about 50,000 votes. The Social Democrats remained the largest party, with 28.02 percent and 99 seats. Ulf Kristersson resigned so that the Speaker could open talks. The election had been read as a verdict on his promise to bring the far-right Sweden Democrats into a formal coalition; that party lost 11 seats. Winning the bloc count did not produce a government, because the two parties Andersson needed next cannot sit in the same room. The Left will only back a cabinet it joins. The Centre Party will not back a cabinet that includes Left ministers. Centre called further talks “pointless” unless the Left dropped that demand. Left leader Nooshi Dadgostar said she would keep it even at the price of a new election. Backing Norlén was, in that light, also a squeeze. The Left still says it wants Andersson as prime minister. It wanted a Speaker it trusted to run a long formation process. Those two positions are now in open tension.
The file now goes back to the Speaker – Norlén himself – who may ask Kristersson to try again. That path is no cleaner. The right-wing bloc is short of a majority. It would likely need the Centre Party’s 24 or 25 seats. Centre’s other red line is the Sweden Democrats: no government in which that party has influence. Kristersson remains caretaker. Sweden has taken 37 days to form a government after 2022 and 134 days after 2018. This round is already on the same clock.
The majority itself is still not beyond legal dispute. As EUalive reported last weekeualive with prosecutors reopened an inquiry in Borlänge, Dalarna, into suspected undue influence on voting after a Left newcomer, Mohamed Abdukardir Ali, took the party’s only seat in the county on 648 personal votes. Police had watched a car linked to the campaign during early voting. Ali denies the allegations; the Left pulled him back from taking the seat when the new Riksdag opened on 28 September. No one has been charged. A successful challenge could still send Dalarna back to the polls and, in theory, flip the national balance from 176–173 to a 175–174 right-wing majority. The Election Review Board has said it is too early to comment. Andersson’s collapse and that probe now sit on the same narrow ledge.
Swedish probe into suspected vote influence could lead to Dalarna re-run
What Monday decided is narrower than who governs. The party that won the most votes could not convert a three-seat edge into a cabinet because its left flank chose the other bloc’s Speaker. The next test is whether Kristersson can do what Andersson could not: find a Centre Party that will accept either the Left or the Sweden Democrats. So far it will accept neither. That is why Sweden may wait.
The article in Italian by EUalive’s partner FocusEurope.it can be found here.
Caption: Swedish Social Democratic Party leader Magdalena Andersson speaks during a press conference at the Riksdag, the Swedish parliament, in Stockholm, Sweden, 28 September 2026. Andersson announced that she is returning her exploratory mandate to the Speaker and abandoning her attempt to form a government. EPA/JONAS EKSTROMER
Updated: September 28, 2026 - 17:09
