Sweden is bracing for a major political shift after centre-left Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson submitted her resignation following a narrow loss to right-wing parties in recent elections.
Next it is up to the Riksdag and the Speaker of Parliament Andreas Norlén to oversee the process of Sweden forming a new government, she told a press conference on Thursday.
She also told Norlén that her door remains open to her conservative challenger Ulf Kristersson, if he changes his mind and decides to work with her Social Democrats instead of the far-right Sweden Democrats, a populist anti-immigrant party whose surge in support has rattled establishment parties.
With all the ballots counted from Sunday's election finally tallied on Thursday, it was clear that voters dealt a blow to Andersson's Social Democrats, who have spent the past eight years in power.
The four-party alliance led by Moderate party chief Kristersson won 176 legislative seats, to 173 for Andersson's four-party left-leaning bloc, with all of the votes from all 6,578 voting districts counted.
A party or bloc needs 175 seats for a majority in the Swedish legislature.
Andersson's Social Democrats remained the strongest force, gaining two percentage points to 30.3%, while the far-right Sweden Democrats came in second for the first time with 20.5%. They relegated to third place Kristersson's Moderates who after slight losses came in at 19.1%. Preliminary turnout was 84.2%.
Norlén said he is pressing ahead with the next steps in the process of forming a government. After the weekend, he is due to talk with representatives of the eight parliamentary parties. He said as the result was so narrow and the final result is not in yet, it was appropriate to wait. Kristersson is expected to receive the mandate to form a new government.
Andersson will lead an interim government until a new government is in place.
Kristersson, who is likely to replace her, has been dubbed the man who always comes in second place. While he is likely to try and form a new government, Swedish observers point out that his party suffered slight losses and its worst election result in 20 years.
In order to govern, he will rely on votes from the Sweden Democrats, who achieved their strongest result ever in the election, replacing the Moderates as the second-strongest force in the nation for the first time.
Kristersson needs the far-right populists for a majority, although he does not want them in the government.
In his pursuit of a majority, Kristersson has drawn closer and closer to the far-right party that was formerly left out of mainstream politics. His moves have earned him criticism from the left as well as within the ranks of his own party.
Commentators in Svenska Dagbladet newspaper have described his bid to lead as the "epic revenge of the eternal second," asking whether the moderates and their partners can really be called winners when their position is thanks to the successes of a "radical, nationalist party."
Kristersson has been Moderate leader since 2017. In 2018, he lost the election to the Social Democrats leader at the time, Stefan Löfven.
He has drawn closer to the office of prime minister in the past, notably during exploratory talks after that election and also during a government crisis in 2021.
Kristersson has been politically active since his school days. Born in Lund in southern Sweden in 1963, he grew up near Eskilstuna and now lives in Strängnäs, west of Stockholm.
He is married and has three adopted daughters. A former competitive gymnast, his hobbies now include running, photography and hunting.
Representatives from the four parties of the conservative-right bloc already met on Thursday for negotiations, according to a report in Aftonbladet newspaper, saying they aim to agree on a basis for government within 10 days.
After the last parliamentary election in 2018, it took 134 days before a government was formed under Löfven.
Meanwhile after a poor showing in the parliamentary elections, the leader of the liberal Centre Party, Annie Lööf, said she was stepping down.
Lööf said she was proud of the mark the party had left in its 11 years under her leadership. However, she said it was natural to be judged by the recent election results.
She is resigning as party leader, but will remain in office until a successor had been found, she said.
The Centre Party recorded greater losses than any other party in Sunday's election, garnering just 6.7% of the vote, a loss of 1.9 percentage points.
The party used to be part of the conservative-liberal bloc, but then switched to the red-green camp after the last election in 2018, in a bid to prevent the far-right Sweden Democrats from coming to power.
