Where English has the phrase "flash in the pan," Swedish has "kortlivad succe," which translates to fleeting, momentary success.
It seems likely that the country's short-serving prime minister may shortly come to embody that particular idiom:
Hours after being tapped as Sweden's first female prime minister, Magdalena Andersson resigned Wednesday after suffering a budget defeat in parliament and her coalition partner the Greens left the two-party minority government.
The government's own budget proposal was rejected in favor of one presented by the opposition that includes the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats. Sweden's third-largest party is rooted in a neo-Nazi movement. The vote was 154-143 in favor of the opposition's budget proposal.
Andersson, leader of the Social Democratic party, decided it was best to step down from the post more than seven hours after she made history by becoming the first woman to lead the country.
"For me, it is about respect, but I also do not want to lead a government where there may be grounds to question its legitimacy," Andersson told a news conference.
Okay, I know that we in the media are supposed to act as if we have all the answers and possess all the information about complex socio-political topics.
But... I don't really get European-style politics.
A prime minister has to pack it up after like one full workday because of some sort of budget dispute? What is a "coalition" and/or a "two-party minority government?"
And the AP lobbing "right-wing populist Sweden Democrats... rooted in a neo-Nazi movement" is a jamboree of words for us here in the States, so we'll just watch in confusion from our constitutional republic with our checks and balances and federalism and all that jazz.
