STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven invited the centre-right opposition bloc for talks Tuesday evening in an attempt to find common ground over the budget after the unaligned Sweden Democrats said they would effectively block the government finance bill.
"It is high time to leave the election campaign behind us. Now we need to look to the good of the country," Lofven told a news conference.
The anti-immigration Sweden Democrats said earlier on Tuesday they would support the centre-right opposition bloc's budget, effectively dooming the minority, Social Democrat-led government's budget to failure in a vote due on Wednesday.
Lofven said the government budget bill could be withdrawn for further negotiations in parliament's finance committee if tonight's talks produced positive signs, but would not rule out any alternatives.
(Reporting by Johan Sennero and Daniel Dickson; Writing by Niklas Pollard; Editing by Simon Johnson)
