Sweden inched towards getting its first woman prime minister as left-wing politician Magdalena Andersson, dubbed the “bulldozer”, was elected head of the main ruling party yesterday.
The 54-year-old finance minister and heir apparent to Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven will face a fight for political survival as she takes the reins of the Social Democrats ahead of combative general elections scheduled for September 2022.
The only candidate standing, the academic and former competitive swimmer was confirmed by a vote at the party’s annual congress, this year held in the city of Gothenburg.
Lofven has announced he will resign after she becomes party leader, albeit with no timeframe. When he goes, the only thing standing between Andersson and making history as the first woman to form a Swedish government is a vote in parliament.
The feat almost sounds anachronistic in a country that has long championed gender equality, but which has at times cursed senior women in politics.
Anna Lindh, foreign minister and fellow Social Democrat, died after a stabbing attack in a department store in 2003. Mona Sahlin, the first woman to head the Social Democrats and a deputy prime minister, was sidelined first by a spending scandal in 1995 that involved Toblerone chocolate, and later resigned in 2011 after electoral defeat.
Provided Lofven steps down and Andersson wins the ensuing parliamentary vote, she will become Sweden’s first woman prime minister.
The job could yet prove a poisoned chalice — she will be tasked with trying to keep her party in power at a time when it is close to its historic-low approval ratings.
Andersson describes herself as a “nice, hard-working woman” who likes to be in charge.
In political circles, she has built a reputation for bluntness that can rub some people the wrong way in a country where politeness is the law of the land.