New Delhi: Sweden's first female prime minister, Magdalena Andersson, quit just hours after being elected because of the budget defeat in parliament and her coalition partner the Greens left the two-party minority government.
She handed in her resignation after the government’s own budget proposal was rejected and the one presented by the opposition that includes the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats was favoured, report AP News.
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According to the report the budget approved by the parliament had looked at reducing taxes and an increase in salaries for police officers.
The report also says that the budget presented in the parliament was the government’s own proposal but of the 74 billion kronor ($8.2 billion) that the government wanted to spend on reforms, just over 20 billion kronor ($2.2 billion) will be redistributed next year.
The Greens Party quit the coalition citing that cannot accept a budget drawn by the far-right who are also considered anti-immigrant. Explaining her decision Andersson who has served as the finance minister for seven years, emphasised that in a coalition government once a party quits the government should resign.
"I don't want to lead a government whose legitimacy will be questioned,” said the 54-year-old Social Democrat leader in the report.
Her appointment as the Prime Minister comes 100 years after Sweden extended voting rights to women. Reports also say that Andersson believes that she will be re-elected and this time as a single-party government leader.
Earlier in the day, 117 lawmakers voted yes to Andersson, 174 rejected her appointment while 57 abstained and one lawmaker was absent. Sweden which is considered of the most progressive nations when it comes to gender relations in Europe was yet to have a female in the top post so Andersson had marked a milestone.