STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish centre-left Prime Minister Stefan Lofven renewed calls on Monday for co-operation across the political aisle to limit the influence of the unaligned anti-immigration Sweden Democrats.
Lofven, leading a minority government of Social Democrats and Greens into snap elections in March, said the Sweden Democrats' threat to bring down the budget of any government that failed to take on board their views on limiting immigration risked causing chaos.
"There is one way to avoid such chaos and that is a broaden co-operation cross the aisle," he said in a televised news conference after a government meeting at the prime minister's country estate Harpsund, south-west of Stockholm.
Lofven this month said he would call Sweden's first snap election for more than half a century after the Sweden Democrats helped defeat the centre-left minority government's first budget bill in parliament.
Lofven has several times approached the centre-right opposition Alliance over cooperation talks but been rebuffed. Both centre-left and centre-right blocs, which have become entrenched in mutual animosity in recent years, shun the Sweden Democrats, who hold the balance of power in the Riksdag.
While calling for cooperation, Lofven and the leaders of the Green party also delivered fierce criticism of the centre-right budget that was voted through parliament and which they now have to implement, saying it meant worse conditions for young job seekers and retired Swedes.
(Reporting by Johan Sennero; editing by Niklas Pollard)