Swedish lawmakers reject PM as head of new govt

Sweden's parliament on Friday voted against outgoing Prime Minister Stefan Lofven as head of a new government, more than three months after an election that has spawned political stalemate.

As was widely expected, lawmakers voted 200 to 116 against the Social Democrat Lofven, who had been nominated by speaker of parliament Andreas Norlen.

Both Lofven and the leader of the conservative Moderates party, Ulf Kristersson, have been unable to form a government that has the support of a parliamentary majority.

Lofven's leftwing bloc holds 144 parliamentary seats, just one more than the centre-right Alliance. But that is not enough for a ruling coalition in the 349-seat Riksdag, where the threshold is 175.

Neither side is willing to accept the support of the far-right, anti-immigration Sweden Democrats. With 62 seats, they are now the third-largest party in the Riksdag.

The centre-right and far-right together brought down Lofven's previous administration in a no-confidence vote at the end of September, though he has stayed on as caretaker prime minister.

Lofven had held cross-bloc talks in a bid to form a minority government with the informal support of the Centre and Liberal parties, which have until now been part of the four-party centre-right Alliance.

But the Centre party pulled out of the talks earlier this week over a disagreement on labour market legislation, quashing Lofven's hopes.

In Sweden, the speaker has four attempts to task a candidate to form a government that parliament will accept. If all four attempts fail then new elections must be held.

Friday's vote against Lofven was the second attempt, after a first try by Kristersson in November failed.

Speaker Norlen said Sweden was moving closer to new elections.

"I regret it and I'm going to do everything I can to prevent it, but if the parties choose extra elections instead of acting in a way that would give Sweden a new government then I'm not going to stand in their way," he said.

Norlen said he was therefore taking preliminary steps to prepare for the possibility of new elections.

He said he would decide early next week what the next step in the process would be.