Sweden appoints finance chief as first female prime minister

Sweden’s Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson became the largest Nordic nation’s first female prime minister after winning a narrow vote in parliament.

A last-minute deal with the ex-communist Left Party ensured that a majority of lawmakers accepted the Social Democrat leader in a parliamentary vote, 100 years after women in the country known for its egalitarian foundations were first able to exercise full voting rights.

Andersson, who has been finance minister since 2014, still faces a fragmented legislature after the Nordic nation’s politics have been upended by the emergence of the far-right Sweden Democrats in the last decade. Her government only controls about a third of the seats, and later Wednesday, her spending proposal for next year is set to be dismissed in favor of an opposition bill.