Norlén wins third term as speaker with Left Party support

Moderate Party politician Andreas Norlén has been elected speaker of Sweden’s parliament for a third consecutive term, with support from the Left Party, SVT reports.

The decision came hours after Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson returned her assignment to explore the formation of a government. The speaker will meet party leaders on Wednesday for a new round of talks.

Andersson said the Left Party’s backing for Norlén had created a new parliamentary alignment between the Left Party and the Moderates. Left Party deputy leader Ida Gabrielsson said the party supported Norlén for reasons of stability, while maintaining its support for Andersson as prime minister.

Social Democrats called the Left Party’s decision a “betrayal”, while the Green Party said it was disappointed. The Centre Party said the Left Party had broken an agreement among the red-green parties’ group leaders.

Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar said her party still wanted Andersson to bring all four parties together for negotiations and reiterated that the Left Party wanted to take part in a government.

The other members of the parliamentary leadership are Johanna Haraldsson of the Social Democrats as first deputy speaker, Julia Kronlid of the Sweden Democrats as second deputy speaker, and Kerstin Lundgren of the Centre Party as third deputy speaker.