Swedish Prime Minister Lofven relies on tried-and-tested Cabinet

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven is entering the upcoming government period with a practically unchanged centre-left-Green minority government.

After the Social Democrat again received the necessary support of parliament for the office of head of government on Wednesday, he did not bring forward any new ministers when he presented his cabinet in the Stockholm Parliament on Friday.

His party colleagues Ann Linde and Magdalena Andersson remain foreign and finance ministers, and the Green Per Bolund deputy prime minister as well as environment and climate minister.

There is only a minimal change in the post of minister for rural affairs: the previous minister Jennie Nilsson resigned a few days ago and returned to the Riksdag so she could take part in Wednesday's vote.

The old and new economics minister, Ibrahim Baylan, took over her duties - and that is how it remains.

The reason for Nilsson's action had been that, due to the difficult arithmetic in the Stockholm Riksdag, every vote counted to secure a comeback for Lofven after his defeat in a no-confidence vote.

A total of 173 of the 349 parliamentarians had voted against Lofven as prime minister on Wednesday; slightly more, 175, would have been necessary to block his way into office.

Lofven's third cabinet

For Lofven, this is now the third government he has presided over.

He formed the first one after the 2014 general election, while the second one only came into being after months of government negotiations following the 2018 election.

The formal change of government was to take place at a ceremony in the Swedish Royal Palace on Friday afternoon.

The next parliamentary election is scheduled for September 2022.