Lofven retains support amid political division

Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Lofven retains the support of the nation's public despite a political crisis that brought about an unprecedented no-confidence vote in him that passed in Parliament at the start of the week, an opinion poll has shown.

Lofven has been in talks to keep his center-left coalition in power as a result of the vote, and has a week to resign or call a new election.

His coalition of Social Democrats and Greens has been in power since 2018, but relies on support from the Centre, Liberal and Left parties, to maintain a fragile minority government.

The crisis and vote was caused by proposed changes to rent caps on newly-built housing from the Centre and Liberals that prompted the Left Party to withdraw support for the coalition government.

Polling company Novus found 38 percent of Swedes still have confidence in Lofven as prime minister, putting him three points ahead of likely rival, the leader of the opposition center-right Moderate Party, Ulf Kristersson, on 35 percent.

Reuters news agency said Lofven's hopes of surviving the crisis improved on Wednesday when his allies in the Centre Party said they would drop the proposals for easing rent reform, which is a hotly-debated issue amid a housing shortage.

In order to form a viable government, Lofven must now persuade the Left Party and the Liberal Party to come back onside.

A snap election now looks likely as moderate Kristersson cannot command a majority in Parliament. If a new government is formed, it would remain in place until the next general election in September next year.

On Monday, a total of 181 of the 349 members of Parliament backed a motion of no-confidence in the leader. It was the first time in Swedish history that a prime minister has been ousted in this way.

The BBC's correspondent in Sweden, Maddy Savage, said few political observers would have predicted the housing issue could bring down the current government.

She said: "The irony is that Sweden's center-left Prime Minister Stefan Lofven is himself in favor of rent controls. His coalition only agreed to look into the idea of scrapping them in new-build blocks, to appease two small center-right opposition parties to help prop up his fragile minority government. But in doing so he's ended up losing the backing of a long-time ally, the Left Party."

She added that it was now ironic that the housing debate could move "down the political agenda", with a snap election more likely to focus on economic recovery after the pandemic, rising violent crime and immigration.