After Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson abandoned her initial attempt to form a centre-left government, Norlén summoned party leaders to a new series of formal consultations – known in Sweden as talmansrunda – on Wednesday. Following these discussions, he will grant a new exploratory mandate to one of the leaders, asking that person to try to form a government. That person may be Moderate leader Ulf Kristersson.
Norlén has set no specific deadline for how quickly a new Swedish government must be established.
"My ambition is that we don't spend 134 days on it this time," he said, referring to the long-running government formation process in 2018, which Norlén also oversaw.
Under the Swedish constitution, the speaker has four attempts to propose a prime ministerial candidate to parliament. If parliament votes down all four proposals, a snap election must be called.
The political landscape remains firmly locked.
For a centre-left government to emerge, either the Left Party must abandon its demand to be included in the cabinet, or the Centre Party and the Social Democrats must agree to allow Left Party ministers.
But if Kristersson is handed the next exploratory mandate, major hurdles lie ahead for him as well, as he would need the Centre Party to switch sides for a centre-right government to be successful – which they refuse to do as long as the far-right Sweden Democrats remain part of Kristersson's backing coalition.
At the same time, the Sweden Democrats maintain that they must be part of any Moderate-led administration.
"We will not accept any government that we are not part of ourselves," said Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson.
Asked whether he sees a risk that the crisis might only be resolved through a snap election, Norlén acknowledged:
"Naturally, the risk is there. But we haven't held a single vote on a prime minister yet, and I still have four attempts."
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