Magdalena Andersson made history on Wednesday when she was sworn in as Sweden’s first female Prime Minister. Just hours later, she resigned.
CNN reported that Andersson wasn’t even fully in office because she “had not yet had counsel with the King.”
Andersson reportedly resigned because lawmakers chose her opposition’s budget bill over her party’s. Andersson’s Social Democrats party will remain as “an interim government until a new government is in place,” said Sweden’s Green Party, who formed a coalition with Andersson’s party.
Reuter’s reported that Andersson told Sweden’s speaker of Parliament that she hoped a “single-party, Social Democrat government” would reappoint her as prime minister.
“There is a constitutional practice that a coalition government should resign when one party quits,” Andersson said Wednesday. “I don’t want to lead a government whose legitimacy will be questioned.
“I have told the speaker that I wish to resign,” Andersson told reporters, according to BBC News.
The outlet added that Andersson “resigned after her coalition partner quit the government and her budget failed to pass.”
“Instead, parliament voted for a budget drawn up by the opposition which includes the anti-immigrant far right,” the BBC added.
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She replaced Stefan Löfven, who recently stepped down as both the country’s premier and as leader of the Social Democrats party.
All the other Nordic countries — Finland, Denmark, Norway and Iceland — have previously elected female national leaders.
As Prime Minister, Andersson was preceded by 33 men. She previously worked as deputy director general of the Swedish Tax Agency, according to her CV on the Swedish government website.
She holds a master’s degree in economics from the Stockholm School of Economics and has served as Sweden’s finance minister since 2014.
She is also the second woman to head up the center-left Social Democrats party, according to Sweden’s Twitter account.
Andersson’s appointment as Sweden’s first female prime minister, only to resign hours later over a budget defeat, is especially ironic given Sweden’s long boasting of having the “first feminist government in the world.”
Under Swedish law, Andersson only needed a majority of members of parliament to become prime minister. Of the 349 members, 174 voted against her and just 117 voted for her, but since 57 abstained, she was able to win in an 11th-hour deal with the communist Left Party.
As the BBC reported, despite Sweden’s boasting of a feminist government, it was the only Nordic state to never have a female prime minister until Andersson.
Bloomberg reported on what happens next for Sweden’s government, writing that Andersson would “likely be re-appointed next week.”
“The resignation was a necessary formality after the Greens pulled out. The parliamentary speaker will call a new vote on her candidacy after consulting with leaders of the eight parties in parliament. The Greens and two other parties have indicated they will abstain, but not oppose her. That means it is likely that she will be re-appointed, although not exactly with much support,” the outlet reported.