Andersson says 'ready' to form Swedish government

Sweden's election winner, opposition leader Magdalena Andersson of the Social Democrats, said Friday she was ready to try to form a government, a task the speaker of parliament was expected to assign her later in the day.

"I have informed the speaker that I am ready to try to build a new government," she told reporters after meeting with speaker Andreas Norlen. "I want to lead Sweden in a new spirit of cooperation, and ... my aim is to seek broad cooperation."

The 59-year-old, who served as Sweden's first woman prime minister in 2021-2022, is expected to try to build a government with the three other parties on the left wing, though she faces an uphill battle because of their deep ideological differences.

After Sunday's general election, the four left-wing parties hold a three-seat majority in the 349-seat parliament over outgoing prime minister Ulf Kristersson's right-wing alliance, which includes the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats.

If Andersson is given the nod, as is widely expected, she would face tough negotiations to form a government that could take weeks because of divisions between the Social Democrats, the Left Party, the Greens Party and the Centre Party.

Most importantly, the Centre Party has said it will oppose a government that includes cabinet posts for the Left Party, which has insisted it will only support a left-wing government that it is a member of.

The speaker of parliament was to meet with all of the party leaders for individual talks on Friday to sound them out on who should be tasked with forming the next government.

He will hold a press conference after the talks are completed, around 3:30 pm (1330 GMT), to announce his decision. Norlen met outgoing Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Thursday when Kristersson tendered his resignation after the final votes were counted.

If Andersson were to fail to form a government, Kristersson would be waiting to try to build his own majority. After the 2022 election, it took 37 days to form a government and in 2018, 134 days.