Sweden's caretaker Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has been given several more days to try to form a new government, after the Sweden Democrats abandoned their demand for cabinet seats and the Centre Party invited competing offers from both main candidates for prime minister.

Speaker of Parliament Andreas Norlén announced the extension on Friday, 6 November, citing new circumstances in the negotiations. Kristersson had been due to report back on his exploratory talks by 10 November. No new reporting date has been announced.

The extension followed two shifts that eased, but did not remove, the deadlock in Stockholm. Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Åkesson said on Friday that his party would tolerate a four-party centre-right government without joining it, and would then move into opposition. Under the option he outlined, a government could bring together the Moderate Party, the Liberals, the Christian Democrats and the Centre Party, with Kristersson as prime minister, while the Sweden Democrats abstained in the parliamentary vote on the prime minister.

Kristersson welcomed both parties' announcements, saying they had made his task a little less difficult. Norlén also made clear that the formal mandate given to Kristersson does not prevent other parties from negotiating, and that talks can take place without an exploratory assignment from the Speaker.

Centre Party sets a 13 November deadline

Later on Friday, Centre Party leader Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist opened the door to supporting Kristersson, despite previously identifying Social Democrats leader Magdalena Andersson as her preferred candidate. She asked both leaders to submit complete plans for governing Sweden by Friday, 13 November, covering their policies, how they would be financed, which parties could help implement them, and what parliamentary support they could command.

Thand Ringqvist wants Kristersson to explain how the Sweden Democrats could be prevented from dictating policy, while Andersson must show how she could govern without giving cabinet seats to the Left Party. The Centre Party has consistently ruled out cooperation with the Sweden Democrats, and it also opposes a government containing the Left Party, which has demanded cabinet positions in return for its support.

Two votes used, two remaining

Sweden has been without a new government since the general election on 13 September, which gave the four centre-left parties 176 of the 349 seats in the Riksdag, against 173 for the outgoing right-leaning bloc. Kristersson asked to be dismissed as prime minister on 17 September, and he and his ministers have continued in a caretaker capacity since then.

Two of the four permitted prime ministerial votes have already been used. Andersson's attempt to form a minority Social Democrat cabinet was rejected on 15 October, and Thand Ringqvist was rejected on 3 November by 324 votes to 25, with only her own Centre Party supporting her. Sweden uses negative parliamentarism, under which a candidate is rejected only if at least 175 MPs vote against. If all four proposals are rejected, an extraordinary election must be held within three months.

Kristersson received the exploratory mandate after Thand Ringqvist's defeat, with the task of testing whether a government led by his Moderate Party could survive a parliamentary vote. No governing agreement has been reached, and the Speaker will decide the next step once Kristersson reports on his talks.