STOCKHOLM (AP) — Sweden’s parliament on Monday elected conservative leader Ulf Kristersson as prime minister at the head of a center-right coalition that vowed to crack down on crime and curb immigration in partnership with a far-right-leaning populist.
Kristersson, 58, was elected by 176 votes to 173 and will hand over his government on Tuesday.
His three-party coalition won a majority in the 349-seat Riksdag, or parliament, after the Sept. 11 election by associating with the Sweden Democrats, a party founded by right-wing extremists in the 1980s. The party has softened its symbol and moved into the mainstream, but until recently it was thought to be too radical to work with all other parliamentary groups.
Kristersson last week presented a deal in which his moderate conservative party will form a government with smaller Christian Democrats and Liberals, while largely coordinating government policies with the Sweden Democrats, who won 20% of the vote for Sweden’s second-largest party.
They agreed on a non-unusual platform to make it harder for asylum seekers to respecialize in Sweden and less difficult for the government to deport foreign nationals with ties to criminal gangs. Gang violence is a major fear in Sweden, especially in immigrant-dominated neighborhoods, and is seen as one of the main reasons for the country’s shift to the right.
“It’s great, I’m grateful,” Kristersson told reporters in Stockholm after the vote. “I am satisfied with the confidence I have gained from the Riksdag. I am also revered for the responsibilities that lie ahead. “
Kristersson, who has led the moderates since 2017, will succeed Magdalena Andersson, leader of the center-left Social Democrats, now in opposition after 8 years in power.
The Social Democrats and other opposition parties have criticized the new coalition for opening the door to the Sweden Democrats. Nooshi Dadpassstar, leader of the former Communist Left Party, said his parents, who fled Iran, never imagined Sweden would go down an authoritarian path. .
“What is happening in Sweden right now is scary,” he told parliament ahead of the vote.
Since the election, the Sweden Democrats have won the chairmanship of 4 parliamentary committees, giving them the ability to exert more influence.
In addition to immigration and corrupt justice, the new coalition agreed to work with the Sweden Democrats in other spaces such as energy, adding efforts to expand nuclear power.
The government’s replacement is not expected in Sweden’s historic attempt to join NATO with neighboring Finland, which was approved by a transparent majority in parliament after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
___ Jan M. Olsen contributed to this from Copenhagen, Denmark.
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This story has been corrected to show that Kristersson’s age is 58, 59.