Sweden’s opposition leader urges allies to help end stalemate

Bloomberg

Moderate Party Leader Ulf Kristersson has urged his center-right coalition allies to help end Sweden’s political gridlock by joining him in a minority government ahead of a Tuesday deadline.
Writing in a Facebook post, Kristersson said he had given the other three members of the Alliance a few days to consider whether they “can and want to” join the Moderates in a
government that stands for
the coalition’s common political agenda.
The Nordic region’s largest economy produced an inconclusive election result last month, with a surge by the nationalist Sweden Democrats depriving the two traditional blocs of a majority.
Kristersson’s appeal to his traditional center-right partners follows his failure to secure the support of the Social Democrats, the biggest party in parliament. Their leader, outgoing Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, lost a confidence vote in the wake of the September 9 election and was then unable to form a new government, prompting the parliamentary speaker to hand over the
mandate to Kristersson.
After a week of talks, Kristersson has now mapped out two possible options: A full, four-member Alliance cabinet, or an Alliance cabinet without the Center Party and the Liberals, which strongly oppose the idea of having to rely on the
nationalist Sweden Democrats for survival.
Whatever the constellation of Alliance parties in a potential coalition, the government would “act just as a full-size Alliance government would have done,” Kristersson said. He also emphasized the fact that neither the Sweden Democrats nor the Left Party would be given influence over policy.