The 64-year-old announced his resignation as party chairman in August and at the same time declared that he would also give up the post of prime minister. When exactly this will happen is not yet clear, but most observers suspect that the final withdrawal from politics will take place in the coming days or weeks.
The 54-year-old Andersson was the only candidate to succeed Löfvén. The economist was elected by an overwhelming majority at the Social Democratic Party conference in Gothenburg. And this despite the fact that the left wing of the party had expressed some concerns about Andersson in the run-up to the election. She was close to the conservative camp within the party, was one criticism that she was rather skeptical of tax increases and other redistribution measures, another.
The toughest accusation, however, is: “She talks about taxes, but doesn’t raise them. She talks about inequality, but does nothing about it, ”Daniel Suhonen from the left wing of the party rumbled in some media.
The mother of two has been finance minister since 2014 and has managed the country well through all crises thanks to its tight financial policy. She stayed out of political controversy and gave Prime Minister Löfvén the priority when it came to mediating between the different wings of the party. That will no longer be possible in the future.
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Corona crisis and gang crime are unsettling citizens
The party, which has shaped the country like no other for more than a hundred years, needs a leader to mediate between the various positions and to show the grassroots that traditional social democratic policies are non-negotiable. Not even for the price of maintaining power.
And there are more problems: In addition to fighting the corona pandemic, Andersson – if she is elected head of government – has to fight escalated gang crime. This year alone, more than 40 people were shot in the street in shootings between different clans. Sweden thus takes the sad top spot in Europe.
The biggest challenge for Andersson will be to find majorities for the red-green minority government. The government currently needs parliamentary support from the liberal Center Party and the ex-communist Left Party. The current head of government Löfvén has bitterly learned that finding a compromise between the four parties is extremely difficult. The Left Party and the Center have almost incompatible positions on key issues such as redistribution policy and labor law, which also led to Löfvén throwing in the towel in late summer.
In order to become head of government, Andersson needs the votes of both support parties. They are still shy. The leader of the Left Party, Nooshi Dadgostar, demanded clear concessions from Andersson. “If Andersson wants to be elected head of government, she has to sit down with us at the negotiating table. She has to offer us something so that we can cast our votes for her. “
Economist, competitive swimmer and enthusiastic hiker
Above all, as head of government, she has to push through the budget for the coming year in parliament. The opposition has already announced that it will present its own budget. Should Andersson not get a majority, in the worst case scenario she would have to rule with the opposition’s budget – Stefan Löfvén can tell you a thing or two about how it was two years ago.
Difficult times are waiting for the economist who studied economics in Stockholm and gave a brief guest appearance at Harvard University. The fact that her husband Richard is a renowned economics professor at the Stockholm Business School is a “match made in heaven”, a dream relationship, as she herself says. You always have a perfect contact person to discuss the problems of our time.
He is out of the question as the new finance minister, if only because of the family relationship. But if Andersson is elected head of government in the next few weeks, she will have to take care of her own successor as soon as possible. There is still no clear favorite for the office.
Andersson would be the first woman to head the Scandinavian country when she becomes the new head of government. A woman had never been brought into this position before. And that despite the fact that the country has decreed a “feminist policy”. But while Denmark, Iceland, Finland and, until recently, Norway are ruled by women, men have always dominated the head of government in Stockholm.
A new parliament will be elected in Sweden in September next year. Until then, the former competitive swimmer and enthusiastic hiker has to reverse the negative trend of her party, which only gets 25 percent of the vote. Otherwise it would have been a short guest appearance.
More: Sweden and Germany complement each other perfectly economically.