STOCKHOLM — After four years in opposition, Sweden’s former Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson is about to retake power — and she aims to use it to fortify Europe’s place in an unstable world. Andersson is in the middle of coalition talks as she prepares for a second stint as prime minister at the head of a left-leaning government, after winning a tight election against the right and far-right earlier this month. In an exclusive interview with POLITICO conducted on election day, the Social Democrat leader set out her mission to refocus Swedish foreign policy — and to give the EU more muscle.
If she is confirmed as prime minister, Andersson will be one of the few voices from the left among the EU’s 27 leaders, alongside Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen and the embattled Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. When it comes to beefing up the EU, Andersson’s priority is to overhaul its decision-making processes, especially at the sometimes quarrelsome European Council leaders’ summits. Andersson was in office at the time of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and remembers the difficult dynamic during sanctions discussions, when Hungary’s former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán threw obstacles in the way of agreements that required unanimous support.
The “number one” issue for giving the EU a strong voice is whether the bloc’s 27 leaders “can actually agree on things” when they sit “around the table,” she said. Efforts to secure a deal foundered last year on legal concerns from Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever. The debate was revived in recent weeks by a group of countries led by Germany.
What does Andersson think should happen to the assets? For “frugal” Sweden, this is “a better way” than adding to the EU’s multi-year budget, which she wants to limit. As for Belgium’s legal worries over seizing assets from the depository in its jurisdiction, she is blunt: “Solve the legal questions, then.” Such assertiveness is still new for Sweden, which had been studiously neutral until Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin changed that, and Sweden joined NATO in 2024, a decision that now enjoys wide domestic support. In the closing days of the election campaign, Ulf Kristersson, the center-right leader and outgoing prime minister, accused Andersson’s left bloc of being an unreliable partner to NATO because two of the four parties in it did not initially support membership. Andersson insists that is wrong.
Sweden has long been one of the EU’s most passionate advocates for free trade. President Donald Trump weaponizing tariffs, Andersson is clear that “trade and technology” have become “part of our security.” But Trump’s trade war with Canada has not dampened her enthusiasm for Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, whom she’s known since her days as a finance minister when he was a central banker. It is clear Andersson supports efforts to forge closer ties between Canada and the EU, and wants Europe to follow Carney’s lead in treating Trump with a firm hand.
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