More than six weeks after Sweden's September 13 general election produced a near-dead-even parliament, the country still doesn't have a government — and its path back to one keeps getting stranger.

The election split the Riksdag almost exactly down the middle, with the center-left bloc winning 176 seats to 173 for outgoing Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson's right-wing coalition. Speaker Andreas Norlén first put Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson forward as a candidate for prime minister; parliament rejected her on October 15 by a lopsided 248–99 vote, since Sweden's constitution only requires a majority to vote a candidate down, not to actually approve one.

A Second Candidate, Then a Retreat

Norlén then handed the exploratory mandate to Centre Party leader Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist, a centrist seen as a possible bridge between the blocs. "My ambition is to contribute to a solution to the matter of government, not to become prime minister myself," she said at the time, according to Swedish public broadcaster Sveriges Radio. By October 26, she was done trying: Thand Ringqvist told reporters there simply wasn't enough parliamentary support to form a centrist government, leaving the deadlock exactly where it started.

SIX WEEKS. TWO REJECTED CANDIDATES. STILL NO GOVERNMENT.

Rather than ending the saga, that setback appears to have reopened it. According to a summary of Swedish media reporting tracked by Wikipedia's current-events desk, Norlén announced on October 29 that he would put Thand Ringqvist forward for an actual parliamentary vote this time — reportedly floating a broader coalition spanning the Centre Party, the Social Democrats, the Greens, the Christian Democrats and Kristersson's own Moderates. It is an unusual combination that would cross the traditional left-right line that has defined Swedish politics for years, and it underscores just how boxed-in the chamber has become after two failed attempts.

Under Swedish constitutional rules, a fourth rejected candidate would trigger a fresh general election — a prospect neither bloc appears eager to test given how evenly split voters were just seven weeks ago. For now, Sweden continues to be governed in a caretaker capacity while its lawmakers search for a combination that can survive a floor vote, with the country's longest government-formation standoff in decades showing no clear end date.