conflicted with traditional Moderate Party policy, which has centred on individual choice. Return to national politics On 5 October 2010, Fredrik Reinfeldt appointed Kristersson to become Minister of Social Security, a position he held for four years. After the 2014 Swedish general election, the Reinfeldt cabinet resigned, but Kristersson was elected as MP again, this time for Södermanland County. Following Reinfeldt's resignation as party leader, Anna Kinberg Batra appointed him as Shadow Finance Minister. Leader of the Moderate Party Anna Kinberg Batra resigned as leader of the Moderates on 25 August 2017, after internal criticism. Kristersson publicly decided to run for leadership on 1 September and was elected on 1 October. The party saw a sharp increase in support in the polls, compared to the record low numbers under his predecessor Batra. He has a harsher stance against immigration than his predecessors. 2018–2019 government formation In September 2018, incumbent Prime Minister Stefan Löfven was ousted. Kristersson expressed hope of becoming the next Prime Minister. On 2 October, he was designated by Speaker of the Riksdag Andreas Norlén to form a new government. He initially sought to form a government coalition involving the Alliance parties (Moderate Party, Centre Party, Christian Democrats and Liberals) with support from the Swedish Social Democratic Party (S). On 9 October, he said that S had rejected all further talks on agreements and that he would now seek other ways to form a new government. On 14 October, he stated that he was not able to form a new government. On 5 November 2018, Speaker Norlén proposed Kristersson as Prime Minister following breakdowns in all other government negotiations. On 14 November 2018, the Riksdag rejected Kristersson's bid to become Prime Minister by a vote of 195 to 154. It was the first time ever that a speaker's proposal for Prime Minister lost such a vote and the first time in 40 years that centre-right parties (Centre Party and Liberals) vetoed a centre-right candidate for Prime Minister. 2019–present Kristersson held a meeting in December 2019 with Jimmie Åkesson, leader of the Sweden Democrats, and said that he would cooperate with them in parliament. The anti-immigration party had previously been subject to a cordon sanitaire by all other parties, with Kristersson himself ruling out dialogue with them ahead of the 2018 elections. According to Ann-Cathrine Jungar of Södertörn University, this put Sweden in line with several other European countries