Stockholm, Sept 14. (dpa/GNA) – Sweden’s Social Democrats, led by former prime minister Magdalena Andersson, have emerged as the strongest party in the country’s general election, according to initial figures reported on Sunday evening.
Late Sunday evening, the race was shaping up to be as close as expected. Andersson’s party has secured 27.6%. According to projections, a combination of exit surveys and preliminary results, the liberal-conservative Moderate Party, led by Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson follows with 20%.
The right-wing populist Sweden Democrats are projected to win 17.5% of the vote, which would represent a decline, compared with the 2022 election (20.54%).
“A shockwave is probably just rippling through the ranks of the Sweden Democrats. They hadn’t expected this,” political scientist Tommy Möller told the TT news agency.
The party secured 28.4% of the vote, Swedish broadcaster SVT reported, though it is unclear whether this will be enough to form a government. It remains to be seen, which political camp will ultimately secure a majority of the 349 seats in the Swedish Riksdag. The projections put the opposition in a stronger position.
The parties supporting Andersson as prime minister, alongside the Social Democrats, the Left Party, the Greens and the liberal Centre Party, stood at 49.1% late Sunday.
Kristersson’s previous three-party coalition, together with the right-wing populists, accounted for 49.3%.Migration and gang crime as campaign issues,
Around eight million Swedes were eligible to vote. Long before the election, the opposition had been well ahead in the polls. Shortly before polling day, however, a closer race for power had emerged than expected.
Issues that the election campaign focused on included the challenges facing the country in dealing with migration, on gang crime and on tightening criminal law. It also centred on the question of whether the right-wing populists could enter government for the first time. “They [the Sweden Democrats, ed.] have developed a Swedish brand of populism. It is not loud or strident, but comes across as more moderate, whilst remaining provocative,” election analyst Torbjörn Sjöström from the Swedish polling organization Novus said before the election.
Kristersson’s coalition, comprising his Conservatives, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals, has already been governing with the support of the right-wing populists since the 2022 election.
The leader of the Sweden Democrats, Jimmie Åkesson, had stated before the election: “We had the chance to take on responsibility. We have seized that opportunity.”
GNA