SWEDEN’S PM QUITS AFTER LOSING NO-CONFIDENCE VOTE

Swedish center-left Prime Minister Stefan Lofven announced his resignation on Monday and handed the job of finding his successor to the parliamentary speaker, one week after losing a no-confidence vote in the assembly, Sigrid Harms and Steffen Trumpf reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

The vote was called after a left-wing party withdrew its support for Lofven's minority government due to a clash about proposed reforms to Sweden's rental market. It was the first time a Swedish premier had lost such a no-confidence vote.

Lofven, the 63-year-old leader of the Social Democrats, told a press conference that for the past week he had weighed whether to resign or call a snap election, but that the coronavirus pandemic was key to his decision.

"In view of the extraordinary situation in which the country is in with the ongoing pandemic and the special challenges associated with it, a new election is not the best for Sweden," he said.

Speaker of Parliament Andreas Norlen will now initiate the search for a candidate who will be tasked with forming a new government. In the next few days, Norlen is to hold talks with all parliamentary groups about their chances of success.

He has invited the representatives of the parties in the Riksdag to half-hour talks one after the other. The Social Democrats are up first.

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