Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Lofven will have to stand down after losing the support of parliament

GB news24 desk//

Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Lofven will have to stand down after losing the support of parliament.

The anti-immigration Sweden Democrats (SD) backed the vote to remove him, weeks after a general election that delivered a hung parliament, according to BBC report.

In Tuesday’s dramatic vote, 204 MPs voted against Mr Lofven while 142 voted in favour. Parliament’s speaker will now propose a new leader – a process that could take weeks.

Mr Lofven is expected to stay on as caretaker prime minister while his replacement is decided.

Mr Lofven, the leader of the centre-left Social Democrats, came to power in 2014. His centre-left alliance won 144 seats in this month’s election, one more than the centre-right opposition.

Neither of the main blocs intends to govern with the nationalist SD, the third-largest party in the new parliament.

But the job of prime minister could fall to Ulf Kristersson, leader of the Moderates. The new speaker, Andreas Norlen, who is also a member of the Moderates, was confirmed in the position on Monday with the support of SD.

While Mr Kristersson is widely seen as the person most likely to form a new government, others may be invited to do so if he fails – including Mr Lofven himself.