Centre Party Demands Rival Bids After Åkesson Drops Cabinet Demand

SWEDEN - After Jimmie Åkesson said the Sweden Democrats will tolerate Ulf Kristersson without SD ministers and then go into opposition, Centre Party leader Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist demanded competing full government packages from Magdalena Andersson and Kristersson - by next Friday.

Kristersson later said the task of forming a government had become "a little less impossible". He asked Speaker Andreas Norlén for more time and still aims for a four-party centre-right minority of Moderates, Christian Democrats, Liberals and the Centre Party.

READ ALSO: Åkesson Drops Cabinet Demand - Will Tolerate Kristersson Then Oppose

Friday brought three press conferences in quick succession: first Åkesson, then Thand Ringqvist, then Kristersson. Sweden has now gone 54 days without a new government.

Centre wants two rival bids

Thand Ringqvist said Centre wants to negotiate in parallel with both the Social Democrats and the Moderates. Andersson and Kristersson each get until next Friday to present a complete governing package - not only a list of policies, but which parties would deliver them and how reforms would win support in parliament.

She pointed to jobs, growth, business conditions, climate emissions, rural areas, welfare, and Sweden's internal and external security. Centre policy, she said, must leave a clear mark on the whole deal.

The demands differ by side. Kristersson must explain how he will stop the Sweden Democrats from setting the terms. Andersson must show how a government can work without letting the Left Party in.

Red lines still hold

Despite opening talks with Kristersson, Thand Ringqvist kept Centre's earlier lines. The party will not have the Left Party in government. It will not support or sit in a government with the Sweden Democrats, and will not back a government that cooperates with SD.

Centre remains ready to govern with the Social Democrats and open to cooperation with the Moderates, Christian Democrats, Liberals and Greens. Thand Ringqvist still called Andersson her party's most likely prime minister candidate, citing deeper talks with S than with M.

Asked how a Kristersson cabinet could function without SD support - after Åkesson said SD would not bind itself to budgets - she refused to answer before seeing his full package.

Kristersson: a little less impossible

Kristersson welcomed both SD's and Centre's signals. Dropping the demand for SD ministers, he said, changes one of the locks on who must sit in government. Centre's call for a complete solution puts focus on both policy and cabinet makeup.

"This does not decide anything, as such, but I think it makes the matter a little less impossible than before," he said.

He contacted Speaker Norlén and asked for a few more days. He had planned to report back on Tuesday; he now expects to do so a few days later. Centre's Friday deadline he called a natural timeframe, without binding himself to that exact day. Talks continue through the weekend.

His goal remains a strong minority government of the four centre-right parties. How that works if Centre's red line against SD holds - and SD goes into full opposition - is still unanswered. Being allowed to take office, he stressed, is not enough. A government must also be able to get things done.