Center-right leader asked to form new government in Sweden

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The leader of Sweden’s third largest party — the center-right Moderates — has formally been asked to try to form a new coalition government that could include the populist Sweden Democrats. In Sweden’s Sept. 11 election, the four center-right parties won a narrow majority over the center-left led by Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson. On Monday, Ulf Kristersson, the Moderates leader, was given the tasks. It seems clear that the Sweden Democrats — a party founded in the 1980s by far-right extremists that now is the country’s second-largest in parliament — will have significant leverage over any center-right government. The populists campaigned on a platform of cracking down on crime and strictly limiting immigration.