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Reuters
STOCKHOLM
Sweden’s political crisis deepened on Wednesday as parliament rejected the caretaker government’s budget in favour of a tax-cutting one from the opposition.
The vote is a blow for acting Prime Minister Stefan Lofven who has already lost one attempt to win parliament’s approval to form a government and faces another on Friday that he looks unlikely to win.
Sweden has been in deadlock since a September produced a hung parliament. Neither Lofven’s centre-left nor the centre-right have a majority and both blocs refuse to deal with the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats who hold the balance of power. The speaker told parliament to vote on Friday for a second time on a Lofven government, hoping to force the two blocs into a compromise.
But the Social Democrat leader admitted his chances are slim. “Unless something dramatic happens, the question of a new government is not going to be solved on Friday either,” he told reporters.
The country must hold fresh elections if parliament fails four times to vote for a government.
The Sweden Democrats, who want to turn away asylum seekers and hold a vote on EU membership, won 17.5 percent of the vote in September and could increase that at a snap election, polls show.
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13/12/2018
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