Helsinki, Oct 26 — Swedish Centre Party leader Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist said on Monday that there was insufficient parliamentary support to form a centrist government, highlighting the continuing deadlock in the country's government formation process.
Thand Ringqvist made the remarks at a press conference after meeting Parliament Speaker Andreas Norlen to report on her exploratory talks with other political parties.
She said that while centrist policies have majority support in parliament, support for cooperation in a coalition government was insufficient, Xinhua News Agency reported.
The Centre Party leader described her discussions with other parties as open and constructive but acknowledged that major political divisions remained unresolved.
She reiterated her party's opposition to allowing either the Left Party or the Sweden Democrats to enter government, urging other parties to reconsider their political red lines to break the impasse.
Her talks explored the possibility of a government involving the Social Democratic Party, the Green Party, the Centre Party, the Liberal Party and the Christian Democrats, with Social Democratic leader Magdalena Andersson as a potential prime minister, according to Swedish Television (SVT).
"We were prepared to allow a single-party Social Democratic government to take office, but this was blocked by the Left Party and the Green Party," she told SVT.
Thand Ringqvist also called on the Social Democrats to clarify what kind of government they intended to form, saying this would help move negotiations forward.
She said the matter was now back in the hands of the speaker.
In a statement issued on Monday, Norlen said he would hold telephone consultations with party leaders to discuss the next steps in the government formation process. No further decision was immediately announced.
Norlen tasked Thand Ringqvist on October 19 with the mission of forming a new government, giving her one week to report back. The assignment followed parliament's rejection of a proposal for Andersson to form a Social Democratic minority government after earlier coalition talks failed to produce an agreement.
The Social Democratic Party, Left Party, Green Party and Centre Party together won 176 seats in the 349-member parliament in September's election, giving them a narrow majority but leaving them divided over the composition of a new government.